A FEMA response team member works with a guard member at Crooked Creek Fire Department near Old Fort in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 30 in Old Fort, North Carolina. Sean Rayford / Getty Images
OPM announces leave transfer program for feds affected by Helene
Federal employees will soon be able to donate unused leave to their colleagues who need time to recover after Hurricane Helene caused widespread destruction across the Southeast.
The Office of Personnel Management on Wednesday announced that it would establish a temporary leave-sharing program to help federal employees who need time off from work to recover after Hurricane Helene caused widespread destruction across more than half a dozen states.
The storm, which made landfall as a category 4 hurricane in Florida last week, has reportedly caused at least 180 deaths in the U.S. and created widespread flooding and other storm damage as far north as Virginia.
In a memo to agency heads Wednesday, Acting OPM Director Rob Shriver announced that his agency and the Office of Management and Budget will establish an emergency leave transfer program for federal employees across seven states. Such programs enable agencies to set up banks so that federal workers may donate unused paid leave to their colleagues impacted by natural disasters can take time off without needing to use their own paid—or unpaid—leave.
“Agencies with employees adversely affected by Tropical Cyclone, Tropical Storm, and Hurricane Helene 2024 are in the best position to determine whether, and how much, donated annual leave is needed by their employees and which of their employees have been adversely affected by the disaster within the meaning of OPM regulations,” Shriver said. “[Therefore], OPM is authorizing agency and department heads to [set up and administer leave transfer programs].”
Employees wishing to donate leave should therefore contact their own agency, not OPM, to volunteer to donate a portion of their unused leave, OPM stressed.
The leave transfer program will be available to help affected employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. For a complete list of which counties are included, check OPM’s complete memo announcing the program.