Article 31: Other Leave/Religious Compensatory Time

Section 1

Full-time employees who are a member of the National Guard or a reserve component of the Armed Forces shall be entitled to military leave for active duty, active duty training, and inactive duty training at the rate of fifteen (15) days per fiscal year. Military leave that is not used in a fiscal year accumulates for use in the succeeding fiscal year. However, no more than fifteen (15) days may be carried over into the succeeding fiscal year. The total maximum accumulation for military leave is thirty (30) days in any fiscal year.

Section 2

A. An employee may use up to thirty (30) days of paid leave each calendar year to serve as an organ donor. Leave for organ donation is a separate category of leave that is in addition to annual leave and sick leave. For absences in excess of thirty (30) days, an employee may request accrued or advanced annual or sick leave or LWOP.

B. An employee may use up to seven (7) days of paid leave each calendar year to serve as a bone marrow donor. Leave for bone marrow donation is a separate category of leave that is in addition to annual leave and sick leave. For absences in excess of seven days, an employee may request accrued or advanced annual or sick leave or LWOP.

Section 3

A. Religious compensatory time off (RCT) means compensatory time under which an employee whose personal religious beliefs require abstention from work during certain periods of time may elect to work alternative work hours to make up time for the time the employee takes off to meet a personal religious requirement.

B. The Employer’s decision to allow an employee to earn and use RCT is made on a case-by-case basis. The Employer will grant the request for RCT unless the Employer determines that approving the request will interfere with the Employer’s ability to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently.

C. Consistent with this Article and the parameters set forth in this Section, and subject to supervisory approval:

1. Employees may earn RCT prior to the religious observance; or

2. Supervisors or managers may advance RCT to employees before it is actually earned.

D. Employees must:

1. Provide their supervisor in writing the request for RCT and obtain approval prior to each use. Employees may email the request to their supervisor or utilize the RCT Request Form to notify their supervisor. Notification should take place not less than seven (7) days in advance whenever possible, and will include the following information:

a. The name and/or description of the religious observance for which absence is being or will be requested;

b. Date(s) and time(s) the employee plans to be absent from work to participate in the religious observance; and

c. The date(s) and time(s) in which the employee plans to perform work to offset the absence(s) or repay advanced RCT.

2. In the event an adjustment to the dates and times of additional work is required, the employee must submit a written request for approval of a revised schedule to reflect those changes.

3. The Office of Human Resources will maintain records of the name and/or description of the religious observance, and the dates, times, and amount of RCT each employee earns and uses.

E. The hours worked in lieu of the employee’s normal work schedule in connection with the RCT request must occur within the available flexible time bands (start and stop), as described in Section 3.B. of Article 7 of this Agreement (Work Schedules).

F. Employees may accumulate only the amount of RCT needed to cover an approved absence for a religious observance. An employee may only accumulate the amount of RCT needed to cover the specific dates and times for which the employee has submitted a request for RCT. The SEC must monitor any accumulation of RCT to ensure that the employee is earning the RCT for a specific religious observance and is not stockpiling the RCT for unidentified purposes.

G. If the employee does not use earned RCT as planned:

1. The positive balance of unused RCT may be redirected toward a future religious observance that has been approved, even if that future observance is more than 13 pay periods after the compensatory time was originally earned; and

2. The employee may not earn any additional RCT until the retained amount of RCT has been used or the need to earn additional RCT has been properly established and documented.

H. Employees with a positive balance of earned but unused RCT as of the effective date of this Agreement:

1. Must confirm in writing, consistent with Subsection 3.D above, the religious observance requiring the employee’s absence from work in order to meet the employee’s personal religious requirements;

2. May direct all unused hours to such a future religious observance; and

3. May not earn any additional RCT until the employee establishes a need to earn such hours. For example, if an employee has an earned but unused RCT balance of 16 hours and identifies a future religious observance that requires the employee’s absence of work for a total of 17 hours, then the employee has a need to earn one (1) additional RCT hour and will be eligible to earn the additional hour.

4. The agency will give any employee with a positive balance of earned but unused RCT pursuant to this section an opportunity to direct all unused hours to an identified future religious observance. In other words, while an employee with a positive balance of earned but unused RCT may not earn additional RCT until the employee establishes a need to earn such hours, the failure or inability of an employee to identify a future religious observance will not result in a forfeiture of the earned but unused RCT.

I. RCT may be earned up to thirteen (13) pay periods in advance of the pay period in which the identified religious observance commences and must be linked to specific dates and times for future use, compatible with the Employer mission requirements.   Employees who use RCT prior to earning it must fulfill their obligation to perform the appropriate amount of time in exchange for the RCT within thirteen (13) pay periods after the pay period in which they used the RCT.

1. If the employees do not repay RCT within the specified time period in the plan, the Employer will convert the advanced RCT to other forms of paid time off (annual leave, credit hours, compensatory time off in lieu of regular overtime pay, compensatory time off for travel, or time-off awards). If the employee has not accumulated sufficient hours of the types of paid time off that may be converted to repay RCT, the Employer will charge the balance as Leave Without Pay (LWOP), which may result in an indebtedness subject to the Employer’s internal debt collection procedures.

2. Advanced RCT will be considered indebtedness to the Employer if the employee separates without repaying it. The monetary value of the advanced RCT will be withheld from any final payments to the separating employee.

J. Employees who take advanced RCT may subsequently charge that time to annual leave. However, employees who take annual leave or LWOP for religious observances may not subsequently change the annual leave or LWOP to RCT.