Catastrophic Illness Leave Donation Program

Many of you may not know that the Catastrophic Illness Leave Donation Program was created by the Los Angeles City Council in 1997 under Ordinance No. 171515.

The Catastrophic Illness/Injury Leave Donation Program is a benefit available to all Fire Department uniformed personnel. The program was designed to allow for the continuation of a minimum level of income for an employee facing severe financial distress as a result of a catastrophic illness and/or injury.

This program allows for members to donate vacation and/or overtime hours to a time bank for use by other members in the event of a catastrophic illness or injury that would result in a severe financial hardship for the employee. All donations of time are made anonymously, and the identities of those who apply to use the program are kept strictly confidential.

Eligibility Criteria

This program is available to all uniformed Fire Department members who have passed probation and are permanent, full-time members of the Fire Department and the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System.

Rules for Donating Time

This program permits members to voluntarily donate any amount of vacation and/or overtime hours to the time bank. (Donation Form)

Additionally, if a member reaches the maximum allowed amount of accrued vacation hours, all additional vacation hours in excess of the maximum allowable limit will automatically be deposited to the time bank.

No other accrued time can be donated and all donations of time shall be final.

Eligibility for Receiving Donated Time

An eligible recipient of donated time must meet all of the following criteria:

1.   Member is disabled from working as a result of suffering a catastrophic illness/injury or life-threatening disease or caring for an immediate family member (“immediate family” as defined by MOU Nos. 22 and 23 under Family Illness) suffering from such illness/injury or disease who does not have other care reasonably available to him/her, and

2.   Member must have exhausted all benefits, including sick, vacation, and banked time, etc., and

3.   Member is facing severe financial hardship due to his/her own or a family member’s catastrophic illness/injury or life-threatening disease.

If the member is covered by another type of disability insurance or leave program, then he/she will not be eligible to receive donated time concurrently unless the member can demonstrate he/she still faces a severe financial hardship in spite of receiving other benefits.

Program Administration

The Los Angeles Fire Department Catastrophic Leave Committee is responsible for making decisions on requests for use of time bank hours. The Committee consists of five members: One Department Management Representative designated by the Fire Chief, one member designated by the Chief Officers Association, and three members designated by United Firefighters of Los Angeles City (UFLAC).

Application Process

All forms to either donate or receive time for the Catastrophic Illness/Injury Leave Donation Program are available and may be downloaded directly from the LAFD Information Portal.

Forms can also be found at:

United Firefighters of Los Angeles City: www.uflac.org.

Los Angeles Chief Officers Association: www.lacitychiefs.net.

To apply to donate time for this program, please complete the LAFD Catastrophic Illness/Injury Leave Donation Program Donation Form.

To apply to receive donated time for this program, please complete the following forms:

1.   LAFD Catastrophic Illness/Injury Leave Donation Program Application

2.   Authorization for Release of Information

 

After completing the appropriate documents, please submit them in a sealed envelope to:

Personnel Services Section

City Hall East, Room 1600

200 N. Main Street

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Mail Stop 250

Attn: Catastrophic Leave Committee Liaison

For more information about the program, please contact the Catastrophic Leave Committee’s Liaison at Personnel Services Section at (213) 978-3769.