(a) The State Board of Community Colleges, in cooperation with the State Board of Education and the State Human Resources Commission, shall adopt rules and policies to allow any employee at a community college to share leave voluntarily with an immediate family member who is an employee of a community college, public school, or State agency; and with a coworker’s immediate family member who is an employee of a community college, public school, or State agency. For the purposes of this section, the term “immediate family member” means a spouse, parent, child, brother, sister, grandparent, or grandchild. The term includes the step, half, and in-law relationships. The term “coworker” means that the employee donating the leave is employed by the same agency, department, institution, university, local school administrative unit, or community college as the employee whose immediate family member is receiving the leave.

(b) The State Board of Community Colleges, in cooperation with the State Human Resources Commission, shall adopt rules and policies consistent with policies of the Commission to allow any employee at a community college to share leave voluntarily with a nonfamily member who is an employee of a community college. A community college employee who donates sick leave to a community college employee who is a nonfamily member shall not donate more than five days of sick leave per year to any one nonfamily community college employee. The combined total of sick leave donated to a community college employee from nonfamily community college employee donors shall not exceed 20 days per year. Donated sick leave shall not be used for retirement purposes and community college employees who donate sick leave shall be notified in writing of the consequences of donating sick leave in regard to State retirement system service credit. (2003-9, s. 3; 2003-284, s. 30.14A(c); 2013-382, s. 9.1(c); 2016-94, s. 36.19.)