Civil Service/Labor-Rep Planning for Medical or Parental Leave

If you need to take time off for a parental or medical leave, it’s important to plan as much as possible so you can focus on you or your family member’s health and wellbeing. This tool is intended to help you plan time off for a parental or medical leave and it includes checklists to help you ask the right questions and get the answers you need to avoid surprises.

You’ll need to read the policies and work with your supervisor and department human resources staff to ensure that you understand your leave and any impacts on related benefits.

The information in this resource summarizes the application of policy and rules, it does not replace the policies. Please consult the actual policies.

Questions? OHR Is Here to Help

The Office of Human Resources Contact Center can answer your questions about taking leaves and using your UPlan benefits. Email leaveadmin@umn.edu, or call 612-624-8647 or 800-756-2363 and choose option 2.

• Civil Service rules or union contracts provide leave rules and guidelines about benefits, time off, and employee rights specific to your role at the University.
• Parental Leave Policy. Eligible employees may take six weeks paid leave related to the birth, adoption, or gestational surrogacy of a child. The parental leave will begin at a time requested by the employee, but not more than two weeks prior to the due date or adoption event, and no later than thirteen weeks after the birth or adoption event. [Note: because of this flexibility, parental leave can be used following a medical leave or other leave for which the employee is eligible.]
• Family and Medical Leave Act is a federal law that provides job protection and benefits coverage to eligible employees.
• Vacation Time Policy. Vacation leave is paid time off of work for personal activities.
• Unpaid Personal Leave. Unpaid leave is any time away from work where you are not receiving pay. Please consult with your supervisor before taking any unpaid leave.
• Short-Term Disability Coverage. Short term disability provides income replacement benefits if you are unable to work due to an injury, sickness, or pregnancy that results in your continuous disability for up to 180 days. It is an optional product offered by the University and provided by Unum.
• Long-Term Disability Coverage. This coverage provides income replacement benefits if you are unable to work for over 180 days due to an injury, sickness, or pregnancy. It is an optional coverage plan offered by the University, provided by Unum.
• Sick Leave. Sick leave is accrued paid time away from work that can be used to care for your own health and wellness, or for that of a dependent or immediate family member. This can include time at home to recover from illness or medical appointments. Go into the MyU portal and select “My Time” to check your balance of sick leave hours, and to request time off.
• Vacation Donation Policy. The University permits civil service and union-represented employees to donate earned paid vacation to other employees within those groups to be used in cases of serious medical hardship or catastrophic illness or injury.

Step 1: Check the policies and contracts that apply to your leave. See the policies and resources links, above.

Step 2: Check on Family Medical Leave Act Eligibility.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitles eligible employees to take job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage at the same employee premium as if the employee had not taken leave.

Employees need to have been paid for at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months preceding commencement of leave and worked at the University for at least 12 months.

Note: FMLA leave doesn’t provide paid time off, but you can be paid during an FMLA leave if you’re entitled to be paid under other leave benefits (such as parental leave, academic medical leave, etc.)

Use the FMLA Checklist from OHR to help you plan your FMLA-eligible leave.

⃞ I am not eligible for FMLA for this leave.

⃞ I am eligible for FMLA for this leave.

Step 3: Understand what paid and unpaid leave options are available to you. (Available time needs to be taken in a certain order. Your leave specialist can help determine this.)

Copy and paste these tables into a blank document to fill in.

Determine how your medical, dental, and other benefits coverage will be impacted while you’re not working. Rates per pay period are available in the plan documents and webpages for each benefit (medical rates, dental rates, etc).

No: my benefits (medical, dental, etc.) will be paid through biweekly paycheck deductions at the same rate as they are now

Yes: My leave is unpaid--I will need to pay for my benefits costs (medical, dental, etc.) at my current biweekly rate

• Total cost of my biweekly benefits: __________ per pay period

Yes: My leave is unpaid--I will need to pay the full cost for my benefits (University portion + my biweekly rate for medical, dental, etc.)

• Total cost of my biweekly benefits: __________ per pay period

Note: If you plan to take a combination of paid and unpaid time away to cover your medical or parental leave, you will need to be prepared to pay for the additional costs for the employee and University portion of the biweekly rates during the unpaid portion of time.