PURPOSE: To establish a fair and equitable means for employees to request, schedule and receive approval for Prime Time Leave.

GENERAL: In recognition of the right of each employee to use their earned leave for their personal benefit, it is important that the facility establishes and maintains a uniform policy with regard to equitable distribution of available leave.

Leave Year is the period from April 1 through March 31 is designated as Prime Time.

Prime Time Leave is a requested period not to exceed two (2) consecutive weeks or non-consecutive weeks designated by the employee as prime time. Each employee may exercise up to three (3)-requested periods per Leave Year. These requested periods will be bid, in order of seniority, as follows: Prime 1- will normally be bid during the first administrative workweek in February, Prime 2 - during the second administrative workweek in February and Prime 3 - during the third administrative workweek in February. The exact dates will be posted in January proceeding the bid season. If an employee chooses non-consecutive weeks in a requested period, each week may consist of as little as one (1) day but cannot exceed five (5) days of leave, and the non-consecutive weeks will be prioritized together. This leave is requested, approved/disapproved and scheduled at the beginning of the Leave Year. Prime Time leave is subject to established seniority rules set forth by NATCA and takes priority over all other annual leave requests.

PROCEDURES: The following procedures shall be used for the request and approval of Prime Time Leave:

Prior to the beginning of Prime Time bidding cycle, the Air Traffic Manager and the NATCA Representative shall review current and projected daily staffing requirements and forecasted resources to determine the number of employees that can be released from the annual schedule on Prime Time leave on any given day through the course of the year. Any employee requesting Prime leave, beyond the releasable number for that day or days, understands that the leave will be considered disapproved and will be placed on the daily spreader in order of seniority.

In January, employees will receive a reminder notice of Prime Time periods and specific bidding times of two-hour blocks per Prime period. Request for Prime Time Leave period(s) shall be submitted to the designated ~~supervisor~~ person on a SF-71 (Application for Leave), during the employee’s specified timeframe(s). In the event an employee is unable to personally submit their Prime request during their designated timeframe, they shall do so via telephone or internet. If an employee fails to submit a Prime Time request during their designated timeframe, they forfeit that Prime request (1,2, or 3). Situations where an employee is unavailable due to family emergency/sick leave, will be handled on a case by case basis.

As requests are received, the ~~supervisor~~ designated person shall post the leave on the Leave Chart. After the final round of Prime bidding, the final Prime Leave Schedule shall be placed in the Leave Book.