Mayor Breed has declared a regional disaster in response to the August 2020 Regional Fires and the resulting evacuations. This declaration activates the City’s Employee Regional Disaster Support Program, which allows paid release time for employees directly and significantly harmed by a regional disaster. This program is designed to allow employees the time that they need to recover from a regional disaster and facilitate their return to work as soon as possible focused on their service to the City and its residents. The Mayor’s declaration covers the period from August 16 through August 31, 2020.
First and foremost, we hope you and your family are safe and are sorry for any loss you may have experienced due to this tragic regional event. We also want to make sure you are aware of and have access to paid release time, if you believe you are eligible and meet the below criteria.
For the August 2020 Regional Fires, San Francisco Department of Human Resources (DHR) has authorized up to 40 hours of paid release time for individuals that meet the following criteria:
- Employee was required to evacuate from their primary residence in an official mandatory evacuation zone; or
- Employee’s primary residence was significantly damaged or destroyed by the August 2020 Regional Fires; or
- Employee’s assistance was required to evacuate a family member from their primary residence in an official mandatory evacuation zone; or
- Employee’s assistance was required to care for an infirmed family member who resided in a mandatory evacuation zone; or
- The school or childcare facility that employee’s minor child or dependent attended was in a mandatory evacuation zone, leaving the child or dependent without educational opportunities or childcare during the employee’s regularly scheduled work hours.
Eligible employees who have already taken qualifying time off work due to the regional disaster may request restoration of leave used for some or all of the time under this program.
To access the available leave time through this program, employees must meet the above criteria and return the attached form to SFO.HumanResourcesOps@flysfo.com by October 31, 2020.
HR may request additional documentation, as necessary, and will approve or deny the application based on the above criteria. If approved, employees will have the option to use paid release time instead of other accrued leaves such as vacation or sick time in response to the August 2020 Regional Fires or to have the City restore any accrued leave already used for qualifying purposes. Eligible employees are not automatically entitled to paid release time, and not all eligible employees will receive the same amount of paid release time.
If you have questions, please contact Iris Goh at (650) 821-2919.