Dear Rebecca and JD,

here are some comments and suggested content of section 500 sub-section 00-04 of the HR resource book.

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BENEFITS Section 500 Subsection 0.0 Description of COMPANY-PROVIDED Benefits

Section 500 Subsection 1.0 Insurance - For the Philippines Program, rate or coverage amount of life/medical insurance varies as premium (to be paid by HPI) depend on allowable rate (based on monthly salary) per HPI/Philippines Policy manual. Usually, employee/s with higher salary get/s insurance with higher coverage. I dont know if there is a need for us to standardize rate. JD mentioned in our meeting of: why not standardize salaries for similar positions across A/SP offices. Benefits should also be included. But I dont know how we could do this, and if Directors will agree.

Policy Statement:

Where applicable by local laws and conditions, HPI will provide medical and life insurance for employees.

General Guidelines:

1. Country offices shall provided to their staff the government mandated insurance coverage e.g. social security and health.

2. Country Directors shall authorize remittance of monthly contributions to concerned government agencies for social security and mandated health insurance.

3. When provided for in the Country Program budget, medical and/or life insurance coverage shall be provided to the field staff. Rate of policy coverage shall be mutually acceptable to field staff and Country Directors.

4. Copies of the policies will be filed in the Country Program Office.

Section 500 Subsection 2.0 Paid Leave - I do understand that HPI is people and family oriented and look upon the welfare of staff, but I see we got a long list of leave privileges here for the staff. If this will be accumulated, or if a naughty staff will avail of all these privileges, a big chunk of remaining working days in the calendar will be used up. We could probably lump two of these together like Personal/Emergency leave and compassionate leave. What do you think? In the Philippines we only have vacation, sick, compassionate, compensatory and maternity leave privileges. Compassionate leave are not accumulated and it is left to the discretion of Director whether to approve or not.

Policy Statement: HPI shall provide opportunities for rest and relaxation for employees to recoup their energies, recover from sickness and develop a healthy balance in work, family and social life through extension of paid leave benefits. General Guidelines:

Employee who intents to avail of any of the leave privileges below should accomplish the prescribed leave application form. The Program Assistant or duly authorized administrative staff shall be assigned in each country offices to monitor leave credit balances of all staff, and process their leave applications.

Employees shall be make aware of their leave credit balances by providing them with summary of their leave of absences and credits.

A. Vacation:

1. Vacation should follow the local customs, but employees should receive a minimum of 15 days and a maximum determined by local laws and customs on an annual cycle. A staff must be assigned to monitor leave credit balances of each staff

2. Vacation credit is computed at the rate of 1.25 days per month beginning on first day of employment.

3. Vacation leave shall be applied at least one week prior to enjoyment, and must be approved by the Country Director.

4. No employee will be allowed to carry over more than 10 days of annual leave into the new year; [unless there are unusual circumstances which have created a situation wherein the employee was unable to fully utilize earned vacation days.]

B. Sick Leave:

1. Eligible employees earn 12 days per year paid leave for their illnesses at the rate of 1 day per month.

2. Where applicable, leave may be used for their immediate family members' (spouse, son, daughter, parent, sibling, grandparents or in-laws) illnesses.

3. Any employee missing more than 5 consecutive work days as sick leave must turn in a doctors certification for the sickness. If employee has taken sick leave beyond 12 days, s/he is required to undergo physical examination by a doctor, and turn in the results to Country Director.

4. Sick leave may be accumulated up to a maximum of 60 days.

5. Eligible employees who are still within their initial probation period may not use paid sick leave until the probation period ends. Payment will not be made for accrued unused sick leave.

C. Personal and Emergency Leave:

1. Personal and emergency leave with pay is granted to each eligible employee up to three (3) days or the maximum allowable by local laws for each calendar year. The purpose of this is to allow for emergencies or personal business that cannot be taken care of outside of regular working hours.

2. Unused leave carried over into the new year will be converted to sick leave. Payment will not be made to employees for accrued unused sick leave.

3. Eligible employees who are still within their initial probation period may not use paid personal leave until the probation period ends.

D. Holidays:

1. Employees are encouraged to recognize the local and national holidays inclusive of election, Ramadan and other religious holidays, in countries where located and follow local custom. During these days, country office/s will be closed in observance of the local holidays.

2. Employees need not file leave application for this/these particular day/s.

E. Compassionate Leave:

1. Compassionate leave may be granted to any eligible employee who has death in the immediate family.

2. The Country Director shall determine and grant a period of time for this leave and to inform the Area Program Director.

3. During the period of leave, the employee will continue to receive full salary, wages, benefits, and accrual of all benefits.

F. Recuperation or Compensatory Leave

1. To allow employees to recover from extensive travel, employees traveling on approved HPI business for consecutive Saturday and Sunday periods will receive one (1) work day off with paid salary. No more than three days off can be accrued during any one month.

2. The day off must be used week following the trip, or they will be lost. No payment will be made for days off that are not used.

3. Following trans-oceanic flights employees are encouraged to take one (1) full work day off (with paid salary) to recuperate from the trip and accommodate for "jet-lag."

G. Maternity Leave

1. Any pregnant employee who has served at least 6 months, shall be entitled to maternity leave benefits for period provided by the local law.

2. She shall present medical certificate stating possible delivery date. Computation of payment shall be based upon provision of local laws.

Section 500 Subsection 3.0 Unpaid Leave - These privileges are okay.

Policy Statement: HPI supports exigency requirement of employees especially relating to health and personal well being by providing additional leave privileges.

General Guidelines:

A. Leave Without Pay:

1. HPI employees may request "leave without pay" for reasons such as extension of sick leave, personal business, etc. This leave can be requested only from the Country Director [and approved by the Area Program Director.] It is up to the discretion of the Country Director to place stipulations on the length of time an employee is away from the job without pay.

2. Employees on leave without pay will continue to receive insurance and benefit coverage, but accrual of personal/emergency leave will cease until return to work.

B. Leave for Professional Growth

1. In cases where training courses authorized by HPI must be attended during work hours or leave of absence is required, full salary will be paid.

2. Leave of absence should not generally exceed 2 weeks and leave plus funding are contingent upon the employees agreement to serve 2 years thereafter for international training, one for local training.

3. Where employees wants to pursue a full-time graduate program or other education activity that could contribute to the qualification required to position currently/projected to be occupied, an educational leave of absence without pay shall be allowed to employees who had rendered at least three years of service to HPI.

Section 500 Subsection 4.0 Other Benefits

This might include any locally mandated benefits.

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looking forward to your comments/other suggestions. Thanks!

Linas

-- Anonymous, October 07, 1999