§ 6-6. Other Leave

City of Alamogordo recognizes that an employee may have a need to be excused from work in order to attend to personal situations beyond their control. The purpose of this policy is to outline the parameters for Domestic Victims Leave. Under this policy, the following circumstances may be approved for critical personal leaves for employees who are:

• victims of domestic violence

• victims of criminal acts

• victims of natural disasters

• family members of military service members—refer to FMLA Policy under Section 6 of this manual.

All regular full and part time employees, regardless of length of service, are eligible for leave which meet any of the above-referenced criteria. Such approved periods of leaves will be unpaid except where an employee elects to use available paid time off.

The leave provided for in this policy is supplemental to any leave that may be required under applicable laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). You may have similar rights under state law. Employees should look to their leave rights under such laws before resorting to the leave provided for in this policy.

Any request for leave for one of the reasons itemized above must be made in writing, must be for a specified period, and approved by the Department Director.

All leave requests may require documentation supporting the necessity for the leave. Such documentation must be provided within a reasonable time period following the request and may include court, military, insurance, physician, or other documents that verify the need for leave.

The City reserves the right to restrict leave or the duration of a leave if the leave will cause a major impact on City operations.

Domestic Victims leave may be taken in a continuous block of time or sporadically and is limited to fourteen (14) work days in a calendar year; however, employees may submit subsequent documented leave requests for continuation of leave when necessary.

Eligible employees who take leave under this section are entitled to receive group health plan coverage under the same terms and conditions as if they had continued to work and are responsible for ensuring that a benefit payment schedule is arranged with payroll if necessary.

This policy will be administered pursuant to New Mexico Statute 50-4A-1-8, Promoting Financial Independence for Victims of Domestic Abuse Act.

For eligibility requirements contact Human Resources.

(Ord. No. 1547 , 1-19-18)