Applies to:	Original Policy Date:	Date of Last Review:	Approved by:
Full-time and part-time faculty and staff (9- and 12-month) Excludes adjunct faculty, temporary workers and student workers	July 1, 2017	January 2024	Ryan Petersen

Policy Owner: Office of Human Resources

Policy Purpose

Paid sick leave is provided to protect employees from financial loss during times when they are unable to work because of illness or injury or when they must attend to other medical needs.

This policy outlines the proper use of sick time and procedures for its use.

Policy Scope

Full-time and part-time faculty and staff (9- and 12-month). Excludes adjunct faculty, temporary workers, and student workers.

Policy Statement

Paid sick leave is an employee benefit and specific conditions must be met before paid sick leave will be approved. Employees may use sick leave to recover from an illness, address their own medical needs, or address the medical needs of a member of their immediate family. Sick leave is not to be used as vacation time.

The university may require documentation to support the use of sick leave. When such documentation is requested, the employee must provide it within three business days.

Procedures/Guidelines

The health and wellbeing of employees and the campus community is supported when employees utilize sick leave to remain at home when they are ill or to attend to their own medical needs or those of a family member. Therefore, employees are encouraged to use sick leave when appropriate and to be mindful of the possibility that they will need to use accrued sick leave for unforeseen illness or injury in the future.

When illness prevents an employee from being present at work, the employee must contact their supervisor, or a person designated by the supervisor, within one hour after the beginning of their scheduled time to work, or as soon as possible within that day, to report an illness and request approval for use of sick leave for that day. Employees are encouraged to personally notify their supervisors to avoid misunderstandings.

1. Eligible employees who are paid a full 80 hours per pay period accrue one day of sick leave per month at the rate of 3.7 hours per biweekly pay period. 12-month employees earn 12 sick days per year and 9-month employees earn 9 sick days per year. Employees may accrue an unlimited amount of sick leave. Each biweekly accrual is based upon the actual hours paid.
   • Sick leave begins accruing from the date of hire and is computed each pay period based upon the number of hours the employee is paid in the pay period. Hours reported as worked, sick, vacation, holiday, floating holiday, jury duty, awarded (such as anniversary day), shutdown and bereavement leave count in the computation of the pay period’s accrual.
   • Subject to approval by the supervisor, employees may take any part of their accrued sick leave as it accrues.
2. Compensation for sick leave is made at an employee’s straight time rate. Part-time employees may use their accrued sick leave to attain their authorized number of scheduled work hours, if needed. The combination of work hours and sick leave may not exceed the amount of authorized paid time in a regularly scheduled work week.
3. At an employee’s request, earned vacation leave must be used for absence due to illness after all accrued sick leave has been exhausted or in lieu of using sick leave.
4. Sick leave may not be paid while an employee is on vacation. Illness occurring during vacation is paid as vacation leave except in very unusual circumstances and only with the written approval of the appropriate vice president.
5. Employees who are scheduled to work on a university recognized holiday and call off sick, will only be paid holiday pay. Sick Leave, Personal Floating Holidays, Vacation Leave and Anniversary Days cannot be used in conjunction with holiday pay.
6. In order to be paid for sick leave, an employee must be in a pay status (not on full unpaid leave of absence) and the leave must occur during a time period in which the employee would normally be working. For example, an employee in a 9-month position that runs Fall through Spring semesters cannot use sick leave during summer, when they do not normally work.
7. The employee’s available sick leave may be used for absences due to the illness or injury of a member of the employee’s immediate family when the employee’s presence with the family member is necessary. This provision also applies to appointments with physicians. While there is no limit on how much of an employee’s sick leave may be used for family sick leave, employees are encouraged to reserve some accrued sick leave for their own needs. Absence due to family illness or medical needs may also be charged to the employee’s available vacation leave balance and/or (in extenuating circumstances) leave without pay, at the employee’s request and with the approval of the supervisor.
8. Employees may use earned sick leave in conjunction with workers’ compensation, short-term disability, or long-term disability payments while the employee is receiving any of these benefits. In no case may the combination of sick leave with workers’ compensation benefits, short-term disability benefits or long-term disability benefits exceed 100% of the employee’s regular pay.
9. Employees on leave of absence, including family and medical leave (FMLA) or workers’ compensation, maintain sick leave already accrued but do not accrue additional hours while on leave of absence.
10. Employees may use available sick leave to cover the waiting period required by the university-provided short-term disability benefit.
11. Sick leave may not be advanced beyond that which has been accrued.
12. After an employee has turned in a notice of resignation, no sick leave benefits will be paid unless the employee is hospitalized for non-elective surgery, the resignation was due to illness or injury, or the leave is approved by the appropriate vice president.
13. Available sick leave balances will not be paid upon separation from employment or following the transition from a benefit to a non-benefit eligible position. In these situations, the available sick leave balance is forfeited.
14. Sick leave benefits are payable in conjunction with pregnancy provided other requirements elsewhere in this policy are met.

Sick leave must be entered in the HRIS. It should be entered as soon as reasonably possible but no later than the day the employee returns to work.

Documentation may be required to support any request for use of sick leave. Due to strict privacy regulations surrounding disclosure of protected health information, supervisors should contact the Office of Human Resources if they believe a request for documentation is warranted. Documentation to support use of sick leave may only be requested by the Office of Human Resources.

If an employee is scheduled or anticipated to use five or more consecutive days of sick leave, supervisors should refer them to the Office of Human Resources to determine their eligibility for family and medical leave (FMLA).

If an employee’s pattern of sick leave usage becomes unusual, such as repeated use of unscheduled sick time on certain days of the week or adjacent to weekends, holidays, vacation, or pay day, the supervisor should contact the Office of Human Resources. If the Office of Human Resources concurs, it will notify the employee in writing that the employee is required to present a physician’s certification for each of the next three successive absences or until released by the Office of Human Resources.

Definitions

Immediate Family: For purposes of this policy, immediate family is defined as spouse, domestic partner, children (including stepchildren) and parents (including stepparents) of both the employee and their spouse or domestic partner. Exceptions to the definition of immediate family must be approved by the appropriate vice president.

Responsibilities

Employees are responsible for appropriately notifying their supervisors when there is a need to use sick leave for illness, and for requesting approval for sick leave when the need for time off is known in advance (e.g., medical appointments). Employees are responsible for accurate and timely entry of sick leave in the HRIS.

Supervisors are responsible for approving requests for sick leave in accordance with this policy, consulting with the Office of Human Resources for any questions including unusual patterns of sick leave use, and referring employees scheduled for five or more consecutive days of sick leave to Human Resources to discuss eligibility for family and medical leave. Supervisors are responsible to approve employee sick leave requests in the HRIS in accordance with this policy.

The Office of Human Resources is responsible for making any requests for medical documentation related to sick leave usage.

Enforcement

Failure to make proper and timely notification of illness and request for sick leave may result in denial of sick pay for that day and for subsequent days.

Failure to provide requested documentation in accordance with this policy may lead to disciplinary action.

Employees who misuse sick leave may be subject to disciplinary action, up to termination.