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15-day paid leave eyed for Red Cross volunteers
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Posted on Sep 27 2004
American Red Cross volunteers may get up to 15 days of paid leave annually, if a bill introduced in the House of Representatives is passed into law.
Authored by Rep. Joseph Deleon Guerrero, House Bill No. 14-246 seeks to benefit government and private employees who volunteer for Red Cross disaster operations.
Under the bill, any employee who is a Red Cross-certified disaster service volunteer may be granted leave from work with pay, for up to 15 consecutive or non-consecutive days in any 12-month period.
The benefit may be given upon the Red Cross’ request for the employee’s services and upon the approval of the employer.
Employees availing of the 15-day paid leave would receive their regular pay rate for the regular hours that they were absent from work. However, they would not be entitled to receive overtime pay, shift differential pay, hazardous duty pay or any other form of compensation.
Further, concerned employees should not lose any seniority or any accumulated vacation time, sick time, or earned overtime due to the disaster service leave.
The CNMI government or the private employer would not be liable for workers’ compensation claims arising from an accident or injury while the employee is on assignment as a Red Cross volunteer.
The disaster service leave would not apply to work hours spent for completion of any Red Cross training.
In the bill, Deleon Guerrero and some of his colleagues noted that several states have already enacted legislation authorizing paid leave for government employees who volunteer for Red Cross disaster operations.
“Often, government and private sector employees possess skills that can be transferred to disaster operations, including shelter management, mass feeding, damage assessment, and family services,” a provision of the bill read.
