Sick Leave

Eligibility

• All employees shall be eligible to accumulate sick leave.
• Newly hired or rehired employees accrue paid sick leave starting on their first day of employment, they are eligible to use their sick time when they have it accrued in their banks, and there is no waiting period. Non-exempt non-statutory employees shall accrue pro-rated sick leave for the first partial year of hire as outlined in the Support Staff Handbook.

Sick Leave Accruals

Accruals are pro-rated for employees working part-time and/or less than a 12 month obligation.

Sick hours

Employee Classification	Hours Worked Weekly	Accrual	Max Days Accrued Per Year	Max Days Allowed to Accumulate
Non-Stat Non Exempt	35	4.04 hours/per pay	15	50
Non-Stat Non Exempt	40	4.62 hours/per pay	15	50
Stat Non Exempt	35	4.85 hours/per pay	18	200
Stat Non Exempt	40	5.54 hours/per pay	18	200
Non-Stat Exempt	40	35.54 hours/per pay	132	132
Stat Exempt	37 ½	6.06 hours/per pay	21	200
Stat Exempt	40	6.47 hours/per pay	21	200
Students, Temps & Adjuncts		1.33 hours/per pay	56 hours	No max for accumulation. 56 hours max allowed to use in a calendar year.

Vacation, Holiday, Jury Duty, Bereavement leave, or Military leave is considered as time worked for the purpose of the accrual of sick time.

Accrual of sick days ceases once an employee uses sick leave for the full 10 days of a pay period. Employees shall not accrue sick leave while receiving Workers' Compensation or New York State Disability or while on an unpaid leave of absence.

Permitted Uses

Employees may use accrued leave following a verbal or written request to their Supervisor for the following reasons impacting the employee or a member of their family for whom they are providing care or assistance with care:

Sick Leave:

• For mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, regardless of whether it has been diagnosed or requires medical care at the time of the request for leave; or
• For the diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition; or need for medical diagnosis or preventive care.

Safe Leave:

• For an absence from work when the employee or employee’s family member has been the victim of domestic violence as defined by the State Human Rights Law, a family offense, sexual offense, stalking, or human trafficking due to any of the following as it relates to the domestic violence, family offense, sexual offense, stalking, or human trafficking:
  • to obtain services from a domestic violence shelter, rape crisis center, or other services program;
  • to participate in safety planning, temporarily or permanently relocate, or take other actions to increase the safety of the employee or employee’s family members;
  • to meet with an attorney or other social services provider to obtain information and advice on, and prepare for or participate in any criminal or civil proceeding;
  • to file a complaint or domestic incident report with law enforcement;
  • to meet with a district attorney’s office;
  • to enroll children in a new school; or
  • to take any other actions necessary to ensure the health or safety of the employee or the employee’s family member or to protect those who associate or work with the employee.

Termination

Accumulated sick days are not payable to an employee upon termination of employment for any reason.

Documentation

Employees who will be absent from work are required to call their immediate Supervisor within one hour of their scheduled reporting time. In cases where, due to the nature of the illness, they cannot make the notification within the allowed time period they should call as soon as possible. Alfred University may require employees to furnish a physician's certificate, or to make other inquiries as appropriate in compliance with Family Medical Leave Act/NYS Paid Family Leave. A doctor's statement that an employee is physically capable of resuming normal duties will be required following hospital admission, surgery, or absence of three (3) or more consecutive workdays due to illness.

Recording Sick Time

Employees shall be permitted to take earned sick time in one hour increments equal to the number of hours in the employee's regularly scheduled shift in accordance with the guidelines listed as follows:

A bank of hours showing the accumulation of earned sick time for each employee shall be established and maintained by Human Resource Services and an employee may only be paid for those hours of sick time that have been earned and accumulated in this bank.

Sick pay is calculated at the employee's regular base rate. Sick pay for non-statutory employees shall not include shift differential, or other differentials as may be applicable.

Paid Sick Time (Short Term Disability)

The University partners with Cigna to offer short term disability benefits. Employees can elect the buy-up option for Short Term, which pays them at 50% of their weekly earnings up to a maximum weekly benefit of $1,500. If the employee does not elect the buy-up, they are covered by the basic New York State Short Term Disability, which is paid for by the University and offers the employee $170/week maximum. There is a seven-calendar day waiting period to be eligible for disability benefits. The employee must use full sick days for that period of time. Once the waiting period has expired, the employee will be required to use the appropriate number of sick hours as determined by Human Resources, per what Cigna is paying them to achieve 100% pay while out on leave.

Paid Sick Time - New York State Worker’s Compensation

An employee will use accrued sick days for the first five working days that they are absent. After a five-day waiting period, the employee will receive workers compensation in accordance with New York State Workers Compensation law. The employee will not be receiving compensation from Alfred University and will need to pay the employees share of benefit premiums. Employees represented by Collective Bargaining Agreement will be compensated in accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Family Sick Days

All regular employees will be allowed to use ten (10) sick days per year for assisting an ill/injured immediate family member. Immediate family members include parent, spouse or AU-certified domestic partner, child, stepchild living (or being raised) in the employees’ home.

This time comes directly from the employee’s personal sick bank, so if the employee does not have enough sick hours to cover this leave, they will not be eligible to use it. If the employee has enough time in their sick bank, they will need to code this time as Family Sick time on their timesheets or Leave Report.

Policy#: H-3
Original Effective Date: 7/1/06
Revision#: 6
Date: 1/1/2021