Updated: 12/22/20; 8:00AM
Posted: 7/6/20; 3:00PM
We recently communicated, in an update on work and leave provisions effective July 1, 2020, that paid administrative leave for employees who are unable to work for certain COVID-19-related reasons was reduced from 2/3 to 1/3 of employees’ regular rate of pay beginning July 1. This requires affected employees to apply additional personal leave in order to receive their regular compensation. We also communicated that we would be establishing a COVID-19 Shared Leave Bank, to help affected employees who exhaust their own personal leave balances supplement the 1/3 paid administrative leave or less than full paid leave under the Families First Coronavirus Recovery Act (FFCRA).
Our COVID-19 Shared Leave Bank is now operational. We are accepting donations to the bank and requests from eligible employees to draw from the bank, following the respective instructions below.
Thank you in advance for your consideration and support for our staff colleagues.
Information for those wishing to donate leave to the COVID-19 Shared Leave Bank
- All leave-earning employees may donate leave to the shared leave bank.
- Donating leave to the shared leave bank is completely voluntary.
- You may donate leave to the shared leave bank using the COVID-19 Shared Leave Donation Form.
- You may donate any form of your own available leave listed on the donation form and recipients can use all forms of donated leave interchangeably.
- You may donate any amount of leave to the bank, provided that your donation does not bring your own accrued vacation or sick leave balances below 40 hours each.
- Any donated leave that is not used by a recipient prior to March 31, 2021 will be returned to donors’ leave balances on a prorated basis.
Information for employees requesting leave from the COVID-19 Shared Leave Bank
Employees may request leave from our COVID-19 Shared Leave Bank for absences if the employee cannot report to work onsite or telework because the employee:
must provide child care because a school or child care facility remains closed, or the school has required or has allowed remote learning, due to COVID-19;
must provide elder care because an elder care facility is closed due to COVID-19;
has been in close contact with a COVID-19 positive person in the last 14 days;
received instructions to isolate or quarantine by a public health official or health care provider;
has COVID-19 symptoms and seeking medical diagnosis or has been diagnosed with COVID-19; or
is not expected to report to a University worksite but cannot telework because their position and duties cannot be performed remotely and because reasonable alternate remote work is not feasible or productive.
To be eligible, employees must exhaust all forms of their own personal leave and any newly accrued leave must be applied before additional shared leave can be awarded. Requests for leave from the shared leave bank must be made by the 15th of each month, to allow time to process in advance of each monthly payroll. Leave from the shared leave bank will be distributed equitably and our ability to provide requested leave is dependent upon availability. Recipients of donated leave will receive instructions for completing their monthly timesheets or leave reports.
If you meet the criteria above, you may request to receive leave from the shared leave bank to supplement your paid administrative or FFCRA leave using the COVID-19 Shared Leave Request Form.
These instructions are included on the respective donor and recipient forms. If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Human Resources for assistance.