Compassionate Leave is a new leave intended for employees with a serious medical condition or injury that prevents the employee from performing any type of work and:

• Is not expected to be able to return to work for at least 20 weeks
• Have exhausted all accrued leave balances
• May be eligible for Long-Term Disability benefits
• Completed a minimum of one year of City employment
• Have accumulated a minimum of 40 hours of sick leave

The maximum amount of Compassionate Leave is 348 hours for a sworn employee in the emergency response bureau of the fire department and 232 hours for any other City of Dallas employee.

An employee may only be awarded Compassionate Leave once and their request for Compassionate Leave must be approved by the employee's Department Director and the Director of Human Resources.