This policy describes how employees may use paid and unpaid leave during disability leave of absence, and explains the disability leave allowance. A disability leave of absence may be approved in response to a disability accommodation request.
A disability leave of absence is an approved absence from a position when an employee is unable to work in the position due to the employee's own medical condition. Some or all of the period of time on disability leave may be covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Leave to care for a family member with a serious medical condition is not considered a disability leave of absence, but may be covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act.
While on a disability leave of absence, an employee may use a combination of:
The employee can choose how and when to use paid time and unpaid time during a disability leave, except that if an employee is eligible and has received shared leave, it cannot be used until the employee has exhausted other forms of paid time.
Health care provider certification may be required for a disability leave to be approved.
The disability leave allowance is the greater of either:
An employee may choose to combine paid leave with unpaid leave, but this does not extend the total length of the disability leave allowance.
The appointing authority or designee may approve additional disability leave after the disability leave allowance has been used. For classified and professional staff, this is done in conjunction with the unit's Human Resources Consultant (HRC).
An employee who meets Family and Medical Leave Act eligibility requirements will have University-paid basic insurance coverage continue during a disability leave of absence up to the employee's calendar year Family and Medical Leave eligibility limit. The maximum Family and Medical Leave eligibility is twelve weeks unless this time has been reduced by previous Family and Medical Leave use during the calendar year.
An employee on an approved disability leave of absence who:
will continue to receive University paid basic insurance coverage during any month in which the employee is "in pay status" for at least eight hours.
Using eight hours of sick leave, vacation leave, shared leave, personal holiday or compensatory time qualifies as being "in pay status."