HR classified my bone marrow donation as volunteer work and denied two days off
I joined the NMDP donor registry in college and recently matched with someone I've never met. The collection is scheduled for a Thursday about three weeks from now. It's a bone marrow collection under anesthesia, and the donor team has told me to plan on being off work Thursday and Friday. I requested those two days unpaid.
I work in New York State, full time, at a private company with around 40 employees in the same office. I've been there seven months. It's a desk job, and I normally work eight-hour days.
HR denied the request. They said I haven't worked here long enough for FMLA, and our medical leave policy covers being sick or caring for a family member. Since I'm healthy and choosing to donate to an unrelated person, they put this under volunteer work. We don't have a separate volunteer leave benefit, and I don't have two days of PTO available.
I explained that I'm the person undergoing the procedure, but that didn't change their answer. My manager says missing those shifts without approval would mean attendance points. I haven't changed anything with the donor team yet because I want to find out whether HR is actually right before potentially delaying the donation.
Does New York have separate leave protection for marrow donors that could apply even though I've worked here less than a year? Or can they treat this entirely as a vacation request because the procedure is voluntary?