during the six (6) month leave request periods above, they will be resolved using a continuously rotating procedure to address employees' leave preferences.  The procedure will operate as follows:

o  Each leave approving official will initially establish an Employee A/L Roster in service computation date (SCD) order (from earliest to most recent SCD).

o  This roster will be used to resolve individual conflicts in  favor of, and at the option of, the employees highest on the list.

o    When an employee exercises his/her option to resolve an  individual conflict, his/her name goes to the bottom of the list.

o    Once established, the list will rotate continuously and will be  used to resolve all conflicts for all subsequent leave scheduling periods.

o    The Union and employees will have access to the rosters.

When extended annual/holiday leave requests are submitted after the February or August leave-scheduling periods, the leave requests will be considered
on a first-come, first-served basis.

Section 3--Excused Absences

A.  Infrequent tardiness of less than one hour shall normally be excused if the reasons are acceptable.

B.  When it is determined that exposure to unsafe or unhealthy working conditions which cannot be immediately corrected will result in the likelihood of illness or injury, employees will either be assigned work in a safe and healthy area or granted an excused absence.

C.  An employee who is donating blood without compensation will be excused for a reasonable amount of time; normally up to 2 hours, for purposes of donation and recovery.  Nothing in this section is intended to change local arrangements previously made for donating blood.

D.  The Employer will excuse employees for a reasonable time, when practicable to do so without seriously interfering with operations, to vote or register in any election or referendum on a civic matter in his/her community.  An employee will be excused from duty so as to permit him/her to report for work 3 hours after the polls open or to leave work 3 hours before the polls close, whichever results in the lesser amount of time off.  Under unusual circumstances, an employee can be excused up to the full day.  The Employer will notify employees annually of this right at the beginning of each fiscal year and shall encourage employees to avail themselves of the right to register and vote.