April 23, 2020 at 10:40 am
Showing solidarity through the donation of special leave
The MUT refers to the issuing of HR/04/2020 entitled “Donation of Vacation Leave from the Teaching grades” by the Directorate for Human Resources within MEDE. The MUT encourages all state educators to be generous and show solidarity with public sector and public service colleagues in need by donating any number of hours from their remaining allocated special leave for the current scholastic year. All donated leave will go into a Central Leave Bank of donated hours managed by the P&SD, who stated that hours will be given based on humanitarian grounds or due to young children being at home. Let us show solidarity at these difficult and uncertain times by helping others avoid having to take unpaid leave due to the current extraordinary situation caused by COVID-19.
On the other hand, the MUT’s advice for members is however to avoid donating all hours of special leave at least until the scholastic year is over. Members are advised to make sure to avoid situations where educators donate all the hours of leave and then not having any if needed. Let’s keep in mind that, even during this period of school closure, special leave hours might still be needed to be excused from online meetings and/or other tasks attached to a specified date and time. The remaining special leave can always be donated following the end of the scholastic year.
