Monday, 5th January 2009
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.
RSS
Comments
Donating leave is a good idea and solidarity with your fellow workers. If you have an emergency yourself your fellow workers would reciprocate your previous donation.
However you are correct to ask Gonzipn to give us back those days he STOLE from us workers.
Where are those who protested during the Labour Administration when it reduced the public holidays that fall on a working day but gave the workers a day leave in lieu, gave the workers 20 days leave instead of their previous 8 days or no leave at all especially in the private sector, reduced the working hours to 40 per week, removed Saturday from being a working day, gave the workers two bonuses, gave the same wages to women who were previously paid 1/4 to 1/3 the wage of a male worker doing the same job under PN governments, etc. etc.?
These are the things that should be remembered by all workers to remember from where they started and ended under a Labour administration and compare them with what is being taken away from them by Gonzipn.
Yes i am all for it, pity i did not know about it before as i would have donnated two days towards the pool.