Employees Gain Enhanced Sick Pool/Sick Leave Use for Family Leave

By Lori Wright, Media Relations

UNH employees trying to cope with an ill family member or the death of a loved one now have an enhanced benefit to help them through such serious situations – the use of Sick Pool/Sick Leave Use for Family Leave.

Changes in family dynamics and human longevity over the past 17 plus years since the current time-off policies were formulated necessitated the need for an examination of ways to enhance the flexibility of existing benefits to address these changes.

The proposal, which was approved by the USNH Board of Trustees June 23, 2005, improves paid time-off benefits to better support employees in meeting a variety of family-related needs, including elderly parent or spouse care, new baby or adoptive/foster child following placement needs, and extended bereavement leave. The policy was initiated by the System Personnel Policies Council (SPPC) and put in its final form by the UNH PAT, Extension Educator and OS councils, and is in effect as of July 1, 2005.

Extensive discussions have taken place in the last year about changes in workforce needs, the prevalence of family friendly time-off policies at comparator institutions and the new faculty contract that provided a paid parental leave provision.

“The initial idea, as presented to the SPPC, stemmed from the need to have staff and AAUP faculty maintain similar benefits (the last faculty contract included time off for maternity/adoption). We felt we needed to go beyond the needs of a mother and focus on the entire family (elder care and child care needs). This concept was highly supported by the USNH benefits office as well as many Board of Trustees members,” said Tracy Boyle, District 2 PAT Council representative and chair of the council’s compensation and benefits committee.

As part of the research into the proposal, the PAT Council’s compensation and benefits committee collected information about similar policies at comparator institutions. “We realized that UNH was the only institution that did not allow some sort of family use. This information was confirmed by the USNH Benefits office, which passed it on to the Board of Trustees, and those comparisons helped form what was developed,” Boyle said.

The new policy comes just a year after the councils teamed up to develop a Compassionate Leave Program that allows faculty and staff to donate time to fellow employees who are facing catastrophic illnesses or situations but who have exhausted their sick and annual/earned time.

“These two programs have made great strides in creating cost-effective ways to utilize existing benefit plans in more flexible ways to support the ever-changing needs of our employees. We need to continually examine the alignment between our benefits and the needs of our employees to ensure we stay current in providing meaningful, supportive options,” said Stephanie Higgs, chair of the OS Council.

Using the enhanced Sick Pool/Sick Leave for Family, operating staff with at least one year of benefits-eligible service may use up to 10 days of accrued sick pool time per fiscal year for family leave (pro-rated for staff working part-time). Leave may be used for medical appointments, illness, or medical needs of an immediate family member; prenatal or postnatal care; or for purposes of caring for a new baby or adoptive/foster child after placement. Access to the sick pool for use of family leave does not require the prior use of five earned time days.

Operating staff wishing to use the policy for extended bereavement leave must use one earned time day. A staff member then may use family leave for extended bereavement leave in the event of the death of an immediate family member.

Since operating staff on earned time may now use sick pool for family leave and extended bereavement leave, they may transfer some earned time to their sick pool by completing the Sick Pool Conversion form and submitting to the Office of Human Resources by Sept. 30, 2005.

Exempt staff (PAT, EE, AA, Academic Year Non-AAUP Faculty) with at least one year of benefits-eligible service may use up to 10 days of accrued sick leave per fiscal year (pro-rated for percent-time staff) for family leave. Leave may be used for medical appointments, illness, or medical needs of an immediate family member; prenatal or postnatal care; or for purposes of caring for a new baby or adoptive/foster child after placement.

As with operating staff, family leave also may be used for extended bereavement leave. The benefit complements the UNH Bereavement Leave policy that allows exempt employees to take five days of bereavement leave for the death of an immediate family member (and one day for the death of other relatives).

The enhanced Sick Pool/Sick Leave Policy defines an immediate family member as spouse, parent, legally dependent child, or any person living in the staff member’s household.

With the addition of the enhancement to the Sick Pool/Sick Leave Policy, the maximum monthly accumulation now is 35 days, instead of 36 days. The maximum number of days for payout at termination remains at 30 days. Exempt employees with a current balance of 36 days will have until June 30, 2006, to use the extra day. Leave records for FY07 will reflect the 35 day maximum.

Human Resources has revised leave records to accommodate the use of Sick Pool/Sick Leave for Family Leave and Extended Bereavement Leave. They are available online at http://www.unh.edu/hr/pubs-frm.htm#time. Codes for specific leaves are available under the “Instructions” section of the leave records. Use of Family Leave will follow established departmental approval procedures.

Information is available on the HR web site at http://www.unh.edu/hr and the Human Resources reception desk staff are prepared to answer general questions at 2-0501.