Page 73 - NWF November Updates

paid emergency leave of up to ten consecutive days (80 hours maximum. All active Regular
Full-time and Regular Part-time employees who work at least twenty (20 hours per week and
have been working for NWF for a minimum of (12 months are eligible to apply for paid leave
from the NWF Employee Emergency Leave Pool. Interns, Temporary, and On-Call employees
are not eligible for this paid leave benefit.

The Employee Emergency Leave Pool policy enables eligible employees who have exhausted
all paid leave accruals to request paid leave allocated from this program. The leave pool
capital consists of defaulted hours from employees' paid time off accruals that have exceeded
maximum accumulations for their specific employee category. These defaulted hours are

converted to dollar value upon allocation to the emergency leave pool.
Leave taken pursuant to this policy must qualify as Family & Medical Leave (FML and, as such,
will run concurrently.

For purposes of this policy, a personal emergency is defined as a medical or family emergency
or other hardship situation that is likely to require an employee’s absence from duty for an
unexpected period of time and result in a substantial loss of income due to insufficient paid

leave accruals. A personal emergency is limited to catastrophic and debilitating medical
situations or serious hardship situations that qualify under the NWF FMLA policy provisions.

For the purpose of this policy, an unexpected period of time as used in the definition of
personal emergency is generally interpreted to be a minimum of one (1 working day to a

maximum of ten (10 working days [80 hours]. The employee must provide documentation of
the emergency condition as prescribed in the NWF FML Policy. However, for the purpose of
this Emergency Employee Leave Pool policy, the period of time eligible for paid leave must be
continuous rather than intermittent or periodic.
An employee must exhaust all accrued sick and/or annual leave prior to eligibility for paid
emergency leave. Leave taken pursuant to this policy must qualify as FMLA leave and, as
such, will run concurrently. Employees who become eligible for other paid benefits will

generally be considered ineligible for paid leave from the emergency leave pool. Examples of
other paid benefits include but are not limited to workers' compensation, short term
disability, and long term disability benefits.

It will be the responsibility of the department head to review an employee’s request, verify
the leave history, and make a recommendation for approval or disapproval prior to the actual

absence. Regardless of the recommendation from the department, the request must be
forwarded to the Human Resources Department for review, verification of leave, and
disposition. Decisions to approve or deny approval of paid leave requests will be the
responsibility of the Benefits Manager, or subsequently the AVP, Human Resources. The
decision of the AVP of Human Resources is final. There are no administrative appeals of
these decisions. Approved paid emergency leave will be coordinated with the NWF Payroll
Department by the Sr. Director of Employee Benefits