A legislation authored by Senator Frank F. Blas, Jr. that would create a Catastrophic Leave Pool Act has been signed into law by the Governor.
Public Law 33-76 is known as the “Catastrophic Leave Pool Act of 2015” and establishes a sick-leave pool for government employees who’ve been diagnosed with a catastrophic illness. Blas said this would allow an employee who has a catastrophic illness to receive sick leave from a pool, which would be an accumulation of donated sick leave time.
“This provides an opportunity to create a pool for those who want to donate their sick leave, but don’t have a specific person to donate to,” Blas said, adding that the law requires the Department of Administration to establish rules, regulations and definitions. The department will also maintain a “Catastrophic leave Pool” where donated sick leave hours will be deposited. There shall be no limits to the number of hours that can be donated to the pool.
The policy will go into effect once the rules are completed.
Meanwhile, the Governor last month also signed Public Law 33-68, which is legislation Blas introduced regarding island Mayors and the zoning process. The law now allows municipal planning councils to review projects proposed to the Guam Land Use Commission and authorizes the Director of the Department of Land Management to include the mayors in the GLUC zoning and construction forms.
