(a) Employees may be granted a paid leave of absence of up to five days by their appointing power when the employee works or resides in a county where a state of emergency has been proclaimed by the Governor and the appointing power determines that at least one of the following conditions exist:

(b) An employee may be granted a paid leave of absence up to five days by the employee's appointing power regardless of the location of the disaster when the employee is preregistered with, and providing volunteer service to, a state agency carrying out its responsibilities under the Governor's Executive Order D-25-83. The employees providing volunteer service are required to notify their appointing power of their affiliation with the volunteer services and to establish prior arrangements regarding the notification of the appointing power in the event the employee is asked to participate in the state disaster response. The appointing power shall release the employee to provide volunteer service when an emergency occurs unless there is a critical agency operating reason to prevent such a release.

(c) No paid leave of absence shall exceed five working days without the prior approval of the appointing power and the prior approval of the Department. The Department shall grant approval of a paid leave of absence in excess of five working days based on its finding that one of the criteria above continues to be met.

(d) State employees called into service as specified in Government Code section 19844.5 are excluded from the above standards.