Our Rights: Taking a Leave of Absence

UAW-represented staff won a new right to six months of Childcaring Leave:

1. after the birth of a child as a birth parent (subject to 12 month limit on total leave);

2. after becoming a new parent whether biological, adoptive, foster, step-parent, or becoming a legal guardian by taking on the role of a parent for a child.

UAW-represented staff have an enforceable right to our vacation (or paid time off).

• Vacation requests cannot be unreasonably denied.

• An approved vacation request cannot be unreasonably canceled.

We also gained one additional floating holiday per year that can be used any time, including during Winter Curtailment, but must be used during the calendar year.

How vacation leave is accrued:

• Begins on the first day of the appointment.

• A month on pay status at 50% time or more is counted as a month of qualifying service

• Vacation credits are based on hours on pay status, including paid holidays.

• Overtime hours are excluded when calculating vacation leave accrual.

• See this page for accrual rates.

If you cannot schedule vacation within sixty (60) working days of reaching your maximum due to your work, you have the right to an additional four months to take vacation leave. During those additional four months, you would continue to accrue vacation.

Through our union contract, newly hired UAW-represented staff can access 3 days of sick leave in advance of accrual within their first 3 months as a career employee at UC.

Sick leave can be used when you or a family member are in need of diagnosis, care, or treatment of a health condition or otherwise need medical care, regardless of whether you qualify for Family & Medical Leave (see below). In addition, sick leave can be used to receive pay and benefits during other leaves of absence which would otherwise be unpaid. If you have questions about using sick leave for these purposes, fill out our union’s Workplace Issue Reporting Form, and a peer union representative from your campus will then reach out to discuss the situation.

How sick leave is accrued:

• Begins on the date of hire

• Accrues at a factor of 0.046154 per hour on pay status.

Reminders for sick leave:

• If you become ill while on vacation, you can switch to using sick leave.

• Unused sick leave is not paid out upon termination of employment.

• Accrued sick leave is maintained when changing positions within the University.

• Staff who are rehired within 12 months of separation should have all unused sick leave reinstated from their previous employment.

• Death of a family member - per occurrence, 10 days, unpaid or paid if supplemented 

• Death of a household member - per occurrence, 10 days of paid sick leave

• Death of any other person - can use 5 days of sick leave per year.

• Additional unpaid bereavement leave is available if necessary

Employees are eligible for paid jury duty by providing a copy of the summons prior to the date(s) of jury duty.

In general, Family and Medical Leave (FML) is unpaid and up to 12 weeks per year. However, unpaid FML may be supplemented with available paid leaves. In certain cases, while on FML, professional staff will continue to have coverage under UC health plans (medical, dental, and vision) as if on pay status. To access FML, staff must be employed for at least the past 12 months with at least 1,250 service hours before the original start of a leave.

FML can be used in many situations including:

• Due to personal health conditions where time off is medically necessary

• To care for family member’s or a designated person’s health conditions

• When acting as a Military Caregiver (leave increases to 26 weeks total)

• When on Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL) (leave increases to four months total)
  

After exhausting all FML, professional staff can use Supplemental FML, an additional 12 weeks, as long as the total time on leave does not exceed 7 months.