West Virginia Civil Air Patrol Leave Law (W. Va. Code § 15-1K-6)

NOTE: This leave will not appear on claims if your organization has chosen not to administer it.

Covered Employers: All employers that employ more than 15 employees.

Employee Eligibility: Civil Air Patrol leave means leave requested by an employee who is a volunteer member of the civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force known as the Civil Air Patrol. The employee must have been employed 90 days immediately prior to the commencement of the leave.

Entitlement: An employer shall not discriminate against or discharge from employment a member of the Civil Air Patrol because of such membership and shall not hinder or prevent a member from performing service as part of the West Virginia wing of the Civil Air Patrol during an emergency operational mission. An employer shall provide not less than 10 days for training for an emergency mission of the West Virginia wing of the Civil Air Patrol.

Employer Notice: Not Specified

Employee Notice: Employee shall provide at least 14 days' notice of the intended dates of the beginning and end of leave together with an estimate of the amount of time needed to complete training. The employee shall report to the employer necessary changes in the time required to complete the training.

Obligation to Provide Certifications or Documents Supporting Need for Leave: An employer may require certification from the proper Civil Air Patrol authority to verify the eligibility of the employee for the leave requested or taken. If the employee fails to provide the required verification, the employer may deny the Civil Air Patrol leave.

Paid?: Nothing within the act prevents an employer from offering paid leave.

Benefits: An employee taking leave under this part shall not be required to exhaust all accrued vacation leave, personal leave, compensatory leave, sick leave, disability leave, and any other leave that may be available to the employee in order to take Civil Air Patrol leave. An employer and an employee may negotiate for the employer to pay for the benefits of the employee during the leave, but the employer is not required to continue to maintain employee benefits for any employee eligible for leave under this article where the employee would not be otherwise eligible for any benefit under the policies of the employer or the content of any employee benefit plan which regulates eligibility of benefits.

Reinstatement: An employer shall reinstate the employee to their original position.

Other Important Definitions/Requirements: An employer is not required to grant Civil Air Patrol leave to an employee who is required to respond to either the same or other simultaneous emergency operational mission as a first responder or disaster service worker for a local, state, or federal agency. (Volunteer Firefighter leave or Emergency Responder leave). Leave under this law may not be diminished by a collective bargaining agreement or an employee benefit plan entered into on or after July 1, 2017. This law does not affect or diminish the contract rights or seniority status of the employee not entitled to Civil Air Patrol leave.

Relationship with Other Leave: An employee using leave under any other provision of state or federal law may not concurrently use leave granted by this law.

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