PURPOSE

To establish a policy to provide faith or conscience leave to employees. 

REFERENCES

• SSB 5173 
• RCW 1.16.050 “Legal holidays” and “legislatively recognized days”—Unpaid holidays for employees with appointments or contracts of less than 12 months. 
• RCW 43.41.109 “Undue hardship”—Defined by rule. 
• WAC 82-56 Undue Hardship 
• WAC 357-31-053 Within what time frame must an employee notify their supervisor to request an unpaid holiday in accordance with WAC 357-31-052?

POLICY

Employees, including faculty and administrative exempt, will be granted up to two days of unpaid leave for the purpose of faith or conscience, or an organized activity conducted under the auspices of a religious denomination, church or religious organization. Skagit Valley College will review the request on a case- by-case basis and approve the time off unless the employee’s absence would impose an undue hardship on the employer or the employee is necessary to maintain public safety. 

When requesting an unpaid holiday in accordance with WAC 357-31-052, an employee must give at least fourteen calendar days’ notice to the supervisor in accordance with the employer’s leave policy. The employee and supervisor may agree upon a shorter time frame. Unpaid leave for this purpose must not be denied due to not meeting the time frame. Leave may only be denied for undue hardship as defined in WAC 82-56-020. 

Leave is unpaid unless the employee elects to utilize vacation or a personal holiday/leave day. 

PROCEDURES

1. All requests must be submitted within 14 days to the supervisor for approval. 
2. The request shall not be deemed approved unless it has been authorized in writing by the employee’s supervisor. 
3. The supervisor shall evaluate requests on a case-by-case basis, by considering the desires of the employee, scheduled work, anticipated peak workloads, response to unexpected emergencies, the availability, if any, of a qualified substitute, and consideration of the meaning of “undue hardship” as defined by the Office of Financial Management. Employees are required to designate such leave as ‘faith or conscience leave’ in their request for leave and in their time and leave reporting. 
4. The two (2) unpaid holidays must be taken during a calendar year, if at all, and must be taken in full-day increments. 
5. The unpaid holidays do not carry over from one year to the next. 
6. If an employee making a request is represented by a union, in determining whether the employee’s absence would result in an undue hardship, the request must be reconciled, when feasible with the provisions of the applicable collective bargaining agreement. If an employee making a request is covered under a collective bargaining agreement, the employing agency must determine whether the request can be granted without violating that collective bargaining agreement. 

DEFINITIONS

Undue hardship: An action requiring significant difficulty or expense to the employer. 

The following factors should be considered in determining whether approving unpaid leave results in an undue hardship to the employer: 

1. The number, composition, and structure of staff employed by the employing entity or in the requesting employee’s program. 
2. The financial resources of the employing entity or the requesting employee’s program. 
3. The number of employees requesting leave for each day subject to such a request. 
4. The financial impact on the employing entity or requesting employee’s program resulting from the employee’s absence and whether that impact is greater than a de minimus cost to the employer in relation to the size of the employing entity or requesting employee’s program. 
5. Impact on the employing entity, the requesting employee’s program or public safety. 
6. Type of operations of the employing entity or requesting employee’s program. 
7. Geographic location of the employee or geographic separation of the particular program to the operations of the employing entity. 
8. Nature of the employee’s work. 
9. Deprivation of another employee’s job preference or other benefit guaranteed by a bona fide seniority system or collective bargaining agreement. 
10. Any other impact on the employing entity’s operation or requesting employee’s program due to the employee’s absence.