-----Original Message-----
From: Kelly Kadera [mailto:kelly-kadera@uiowa.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 2:12 PM
To: LeBlond, Richard
Subject: New Sick Leave Policy
Richard,
Is the Faculty Senate thinking about replying to this new policy?
I have 2 main concerns:
1) This sets up a perverse incentive system in which no one would want to serve on committees. For example, the person who is sick for one EPC committee meeting gets penalized while the person who never serves maintains all his/her sick leave.
2) If they're going to treat us like hourly employees, maybe they ought to start giving us hourly employee benefits such as: a) a 12-month salary instead of a 9-month salary spread over 12 months, b) jobs that don't require working on nights & weekends, and c) paid vacation.
A third, related, concern is that there seems to be a new trend toward charging women sick leave when they take maternity leave. When I had my son in 1996, they didn't do this. Now it's being done regularly. So in essence, we don't really have a maternity leave benefit anymore.
Your thoughts?
Kelly Kadera
--------------- Text of forwarded message ---------------
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:01:08 -0600
To: "Academic year faculty"
From: "Susan R. Johnson"< susan-johnson@uiowa.edu>
Reply-to: susan-johnson@uiowa.edu
Subject: [UnivAdm] Revision to the guidelines on Sick leave reporting
Status: RO
Please note that we have slightly revised the faculty specific guidelines at the end of the memo, in order to make them more clear. The new guidelines are
1. Absences should be reported if they involve missing a class, faculty or committee meeting, or any other University-based obligation, even if rescheduled or covered by someone else.
2. Absences of less than half a day that do not involve missing a class, faculty or committee meeting do not need to be reported.
To all academic-year faculty who receive sick-leave benefits:
Beginning January 2006, all academic-year faculty members will submit sick leave online monthly. Fiscal-year faculty and all University staff already have been using this system now for some time.
What to report: At the end of this message is a description of the University sick leave policy, and additional guidelines that provide flexibility based on the way faculty work.
How to report: You will access the reporting form through the Self-Service Website https://hris.uiowa.edu/portal/. After you have signed in with your HawkID, you will go to the main screen, where the link for reporting sick leave is labeled "Employee Time Records."
If you took no leave: You must submit a monthly time record even if you have no sick leave to report. Click on the first month for which you are reporting, and then "Submit to Human Resources."
Reminders: Each month you will receive an e-mail reminder if you have not yet reported your sick leave for the previous month. You will continue to receive these reminders regularly until you have completed the report.
Online help: If you need help with using the Self-Service Website to submit your sick leave, please go to the following website for instructions: http://www.uiowa.edu/hr/fusim/Docs-PDF/academic_faculty_etrs.pdf .
Offline help: If you have questions about what you are required to report, what kind of sick leave to report, or any other questions about sick leave reporting, please contact your departmental Human
Resources Representative or the Faculty HR Representative Lori Cranston, 335-0253.
The University sick leave policy: The University's sick leave policy, in place since 1997 (with minor modifications), has not changed. However, because reporting previously was done on a semester- and departmental-basis, many faculty members are unaware of the details of the policy, which can be found in the University's Operations Manual at: http://www.uiowa.edu/~our/opmanual/iii/22.htm#223.
A few key provisions are:
For the payment of sick leave benefits, faculty members are considered to be "on duty" five days per week, eight hours a day, even though their classes may be scheduled on more or fewer than five days per week.
Absences which can be charged to family caregiving leave under current policies are limited to 5 days per calendar year for full time employee (provided the employee has a sufficient sick leave balance). Any absence in excess of this amount must be reported as leave of absence without pay.
Where funeral leave is authorized by current policy, accumulated sick leave may be used not to exceed 3 days for each occurrence. Sick leave used to serve as a pallbearer may not exceed 1 day for each occurrence.
Sick leave may be used because of a medically-related disability in most circumstances.
Additional guidelines for faculty: The University understands that faculty members do not punch a 9-to-5 time clock, but rather work in a flexible and highly varied employment environment. In order to accommodate this flexibility and at the same time apply the policy with some uniformity across faculty with very different work portfolios, the following guidelines are provided:
Absences should be reported if they involve missing a class, faculty or committee meeting, or any other University-based obligation, even if rescheduled or covered by someone else.
Absences of less than half a day that do not involve missing a class, faculty or committee meeting do not need to be reported.
Thank you for your cooperation with these new procedures.