Emergency Leave Transfer for Federal Employees Adversely Affected by Hurricane Ida

In a September 3, 2021 memo, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja announced the establishment of an Emergency Leave Transfer Program (ELTP) to help federal employees who were adversely affected by Hurricane Ida. Under the ELTP, “Federal employees may donate annual leave to employees of the same or other agencies who are adversely affected, or have family members who are adversely affected, by the disaster or emergency.”

After consulting with various agencies to assess the impact of Hurricane Ida on their employees, OPM found that the establishment of an ELTP was warranted. Since agency heads are in the best position to determine the needs of their employees, OPM is giving them five major tasks.

(1) Determine which employees are affected and whether, and how much, donated annual leave they need;

(2) Determine the period of time for which donated annual leave may be accepted for distribution to approved leave recipients;

(3) As appropriate, approve leave donors and/or leave recipients in their agencies;

(4) Facilitate the distribution of donated annual leave from approved leave donors or (with the concurrence of an agency leave bank board) from an agency leave bank to approved leave recipients within their agencies;

(5) Educate adversely affected employees that, dependent on agency policy, they may request advanced annual or sick leave, as appropriate (even if they have available annual and sick leave) or leave without pay, so that they are not forced to use accrued leave before donated annual leave becomes available.

The memo furthers that agencies are responsible for administering the ELTP for their own affected employees and employees who wish to donate annual leave must contact their own agencies, to determine if there are any affected employees in their agency and how to donate annual leave to them.

In case internal agency solicitations do not bring forth enough donated annual leave to meet the needs of emergency leave recipients within the agency, OPM will provide assistance. Finally, OPM will notify each agency of the cumulative amount of donated annual leave that will be credited to it and the agency will determine the amount of donated annual leave to be transferred to each emergency leave recipient.

OPM also released a memo on September 1, 2021 in which they shared a wide range of human resources (HR) flexibilities and procedures currently available to assist Federal employees affected by Hurricane Ida and other emergency situations. These include telework polices during inclement weather and evacuation payments for federal employees who are ordered to evacuate from an area because of imminent danger to their lives as a result of a severe weather condition or other emergency situation.

More information on these policies can be found here and the Human Resources Flexibilities and Authorities in the Federal Government handbook can be found here.