Virginia Code 40.1-33.8: Organ donation leave
A. An employer shall provide an eligible employee (i) up to 60 business days of unpaid organ donation leave in any 12-month period to serve as an organ donor and (ii) up to 30 business days of unpaid organ donation leave in any 12-month period to serve as a bone marrow donor.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 40.1-33.8
- Donor: The person who makes a gift.
- Eligible employee: means an individual who has requested that an employer provide organ donation leave and who, as of the date that the requested organ donation leave begins, will have been employed by that employer for at least (i) a 12-month period and (ii) 1,250 hours during the previous 12 months. See Virginia Code 40.1-33.7
- Employee: means any person who, in consideration of wages, salaries or commissions, may be permitted, required or directed by any employer to engage in any employment directly or indirectly. See Virginia Code 40.1-2
- employer: includes the Commonwealth and its agencies, institutions, and political subdivisions. See Virginia Code 40.1-33.7
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Organ donation leave: means leave of an eligible employee for the purpose of donating one or more of such employee's human organs, including bone marrow, to be medically transplanted into the body of another individual. See Virginia Code 40.1-33.7
B. To receive organ donation leave, the eligible employee shall provide written physician verification to the employer that (i) the eligible employee is an organ donor or a bone marrow donor and (ii) there is a medical necessity for the donation of the organ or bone marrow.
C. No employee shall take organ donation leave concurrently with leave taken under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (29 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq.).
D. Nothing in this article shall be construed to:
1. Discourage an employer from adopting or retaining leave policies more generous than required by this article;
2. Except as provided in subsection C, prohibit an employee from taking paid sick leave or other paid time off to which the employee is otherwise entitled in addition to or in lieu of organ donation leave; or
3. Diminish the obligation of an employer to comply with a collective bargaining agreement or an employment benefit program or plan that provides an amount of organ donation leave sufficient to meet the requirements of this article and that may be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions as organ donation leave under this article.
2023, c. 751.