The Life Saving Leave Act amends the Family and Medical Leave Act to allow eligible employees to take up to 40 hours of unpaid leave per year for bone marrow or blood stem cell donation, including time for pre-donation activities, the actual donation procedure, and post-donation recovery. Employees can use this leave intermittently or on a reduced schedule, and they may choose to use their accrued paid vacation, personal, or sick leave to cover part of it, though employers cannot require them to do so. The bill affects workers at covered employers and requires employees to provide at least 30 days' notice when the donation is planned, though shorter notice is acceptable if the procedure must happen sooner. Importantly, the 40 hours of donation leave counts toward the existing 12-week annual leave entitlement under the Family and Medical Leave Act, meaning employees cannot receive more than 12 total weeks of leave when combining donation leave with other protected leave reasons. No new federal funding is specified in the legislation, as it primarily modifies existing leave protections.
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