OPM sets up leave transfer program for feds impacted by Milton

For the second time in as many weeks, the Office of Personnel Management has announced that it will establish a temporary leave-sharing program to help employees who need time off from work to recover following Hurricane Milton’s landfall in Florida Wednesday.

After a brief dalliance with Category 5 winds, Milton struck as a Category 3 storm near Tampa, creating tornadoes and other storm damage as it crossed the state before entering the Atlantic Ocean, killing at least 18 Americans as of Friday.

In a memo to agency heads Thursday, Acting OPM Director Rob Shriver announced that, as the agency did in connection with Hurricane Helene, which inundated several states across the southeast last month, OPM will establish an emergency leave transfer program for federal workers in Florida. Such programs allow federal employees to donate unused paid leave so that colleagues who need to take time off to recover from a natural disaster can do so without dipping into their own paid or unpaid leave.

“An ELTP permits employees in the executive and judicial branches . . . to donate unused annual leave for transfer to employees of the same or other agencies who are adversely affected by a major disaster or emergency, either directly or through adversely affected family members, and who need additional time off from work without having to use their own paid leave,” Shriver wrote. “Employees who are adversely affected and seek to become emergency leave recipients must apply in writing to their agencies.”

Although OPM authorizes emergency leave transfer programs, it is up to individual agencies to measure their employees’ need for donated leave and, if necessary, stand up a leave bank for colleagues to donate. If not enough leave is available within the agency’s leave bank to cover all requests, OPM then will step in to coordinate leave donations between agencies.

Shriver also reminded agency heads to refer to 2017 OPM guidance, issued after a similar flurry of severe storms and wildfires, loosening some restrictions on emergency leave transfer programs and providing tips to agencies tasked with maintaining multiple leave banks at once. Though agencies must maintain distinct leave transfer programs—as each is tied to a specific disaster or emergency—employees may elect to donate to multiple leave banks at once, and they also may redesignate already donated leave for use by victims of another storm, provided that leave hasn’t already been allocated.

“Agencies should contact OPM for assistance in receiving additional donated annual leave from other agencies only if they do not receive sufficient amounts of donated leave to meet the needs of emergency leave recipients within the agency,” Shriver wrote. “Based on the demand for donated leave, OPM will solicit and coordinate the transfer of donated annual leave among federal agencies.”