Unusable Annual Leave Can Be Donated

Employees who will be unable to use all their “use or lose” annual leave by the time the current federal leave year ends — January 9 for most – may consider donating that time to an agency leave bank or leave sharing program to benefit colleagues who are experiencing a medical emergency. Policies allow for restoration in certain circumstances when employees are prevented from using annual leave–but only if the leave was scheduled by a cutoff date, which this year was November 28. (One exception is that for someone who scheduled use or lose leave for the last half of their scheduled workday on December 24 and is unable to reschedule that leave for use before the end of the leave year, the leave will be forfeited and cannot be restored.) Most employees can carry no more than 240 hours of accumulated annual leave from one year to the next, although higher limits apply to some. In addition to medical conditions, donated annual leave can be used for certain other types of personal emergencies. There is no limit on accumulation of sick leave, and that type of leave cannot be donated.