Government employees' leave fund system widened

Public officials who run out of vacation leave because they suffer from an ailment or are caring for a sick relative can benefit from a pool of days of leave donated by colleagues.

Under the new policy, introduced in December, government employees are able to donate vacation leave to colleagues who need to care for a sick relative or suffer from an illness.

Whereas before public officials could only donate up to two days of their vacation leave, now they are able to give up all their leave, amounting to a total of 24 days a year. The revised policy forms part of the government's plan to help vulnerable people while, at the same time, aiming to promote more solidarity among colleagues.

Government employees can also donate leave to family members, provided they work in the civil service, who need to take sick leave or have to assist family members.

Employees can only utilise donated vacation leave after they exhaust all their vacation leave and any full and half-pay sick leave. Similarly, employees who request leave to care for sick relatives will only be able to use it after they have used up their own vacation leave.

The donated leave is pooled in a vacation leave fund and then distributed to employees who are eligible to make use of the fund.

Through the Corporate Services Department, each ministry sets up and administers a separate fund for the donated leave. The department coordinates the fund and if the leave is not used up, it can be carried forward to the following year. Furthermore, if smaller ministries run out of donated vacation leave, they can turn to larger ministries for help.

The request must be recommended by the employee's head of department and must be substantiated with written evidence.

A spokesman for the government said a number of employees had benefitted from the previous policy and government received a number of requests to increase the number of days that could be taken.