1. (a) The governor or mayor or their respective designees may grant a state or county employee who is a certified American Red Cross disaster volunteer up to thirty days paid leave of absence to perform disaster relief services for the American Red Cross, a federally chartered nongovernmental disaster relief organization, when a disaster has been:

   1. (1) Designated as level III or higher by American Red Cross regulations;
   2. (2) Officially declared by the President of the United States; or

   3. (3) Declared a state of emergency by the governor;

      provided that the employee has prior authorization from the governor or mayor, or their respective designee, as applicable, and the leave of absence imposes no undue hardship on state or county operations.

2. (b) Employees granted leaves of absence pursuant to this section shall be paid at their regular rates of pay for those regular hours during which the employees are absent from work, without loss of seniority, pay, vacation, sick leave, or earned overtime accumulations.

[L 2003, c 24, §2]