POLICY NUMBER: EB-100 DATE ESTABLISHED: DATE REVIEWED/REVISED: September 1, 1967 January 1, 2011 AUTHORIZED BY: HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT HUMAN RESOURCES POLICY SUBJECT: LEAVE OF ABSENCE PURPOSE: WellSpan Health recognizes that there are occasions when an employee needs to be away from his or her job. The Leave of Absence Policy is intended to provide guidelines for meeting those needs in the context of maintaining adequate staffing levels required to provide the organization s services. WellSpan Health intends to comply fully with all applicable legislation, regulations and ordinances applying to the administration of Leaves of Absences. This policy is designed to create a framework for managers to administer Leaves of Absence to encourage a healthy balance of work and personal life, to support quality patient care and to avoid discrimination against protected individuals or classes under any applicable laws. This policy also provides information to employees regarding WellSpan Health s (WellSpan) Leave of Absence guidelines and procedures. POLICY: It is the policy of WellSpan to authorize leaves of absence in situations where the need is determined to be justified, the leave is available as a matter of law, regulation or ordinance, or the leave can be granted without undue harm to the organization, its services or the health and safety of others. Leaves of absence are either job protected or non-job protected. Job protected leaves are either clearly identified in this policy or agreed to by the employee s manager and Human Resources. WellSpan reserves the right to grant or decline a leave of absence, whether job protected or non-job-protected, that is not available to an employee as a matter of law. WellSpan has engaged the services of Well Advised Workplace Absence Solutions (Well Advised) to administer leaves that qualify under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Well Advised, WellSpan managers and supervisors and Human Resources will work together to properly administer this policy. Generally, a leave of absence will be required for all situations that cause the employee to be away from his or her job for more than three consecutive work days. This does not include normally scheduled time off such as vacation time. However, in the case of time off that may qualify under FMLA, leave of absence procedures outlined below will need to be followed for absences that require the employee to be away from work for more than three consecutive work days or will require an intermittent leave as defined under FMLA.
I. Job Protected Leaves of Absence Job protected Leaves of Absence generally fall under Family and Medical Leave Act protection or Military Leave provisions that provide job protection. Following is a list of reasons for absence that may qualify as job protected: A. Family and Medical Leave Act Family Leave: the birth of a child in order to care for that child; the placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care; care of a spouse, child or parent who has a Serious Health Condition as defined under FMLA regulations; Medical Leave the employee s own Serious Health Condition, which renders the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job. Service Member Caregiver Leave Under FMLA an employee whose spouse, child or parent either has been notified of an approaching call or order to active military duty or who is already on active military duty may take up to 12 weeks of leave for reasons related to or affected by the family member s call to duty. Reasons related to the call to duty include such things as helping the service member prepare for the departure, or caring for children of the service member. The leave may begin as soon as the individual receives the call to duty. Employees must provide proof of the call to duty. an employee whose spouse, child, parent or next-of-kin is injured or recovering from a serious illness or injury suffered while on active military duty and who is unable to perform the duties of the service member s office, grade, ranking or rating; FMLA leave may extend up to 26 weeks in a single 12 month period. Next-of-kin is defined as the closest blood relative of the injured or recovering service member. An employee is also eligible for this type of leave when the service member is receiving medical treatment, recuperation or therapy, even if the service member is on the Temporary Disability Retired List of their branch of the service. The employee must provide certification of the service member s injury, recovery, or need for care.
Service member caregiver leave is restricted to a single 12 month period beginning the first day leave is taken for this purpose and ending 12 months after that date. Service member caregiver leave is restricted to a one-time use per covered service member unless a subsequent serious injury or illness occurs. Overall, any combination of existing FMLA, and such leave is limited to a total of 26 weeks. In other words, if an employee takes 12 weeks of leave for his/her own Serious Health Condition, he/she may only take an additional 14 weeks of leave in a 12 month period to care for service member injured in the line of duty. All other provisions regarding FMLA set forth in this policy, i.e. use of intermittent leave, use of leave by husbands and wives combined, requirements of medical certifications and the requirement of use of paid leave, etc. apply in full force to any leave taken under this section. B. Other Types of Leave 1. Military leaves of absence that meet the criteria as required by law or are consistent with job protection as defined in the WellSpan Health Military Leave of Absence policy; 2. Any other type of leave which has been approved and identified as job protected through a written memorandum or letter of understanding between the manager and affected employee in conjunction with Human Resources. 3. Leaves that may be covered by an employment agreement. 4. Temporary leaves for a defined period which are approved by the manager in conjunction with Human Resources as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ASA) and do not pose undue hardship. II. Non-Job Protected Leaves of Absence Non-Job Protected Leaves of Absence include the following types of leave: A. Leaves for Medical and/or Family reasons that extend beyond the protections of the Family Medical Leave Act or do not qualify under the Family Medical Leave Act are considered non-job protected and are granted at the discretion of WellSpan Health. B. Personal Leaves granted for such reasons as unusual hardship, family emergency, pursuit of education and other situations which may require an employee to be away from his/her job.
Non-job protected leaves may not exceed one year at the discretion of WellSpan Health, including any job protected leave taken within the most recent 12-month period. III. Eligibility for Leave of Absence Employees who are in their first 90 days of employment are not eligible for a leave of absence unless required by law or contract. Although no leave is required to be granted to an employee under FMLA for the first 12 months of employment, WellSpan will grant a Medical Leave to an employee within the first 12 months of employment when the leave is for the employee s own Serious Health Condition and the employee will be totally disabled and unable to work for more than three consecutive work days. In order to be eligible for this leave, the employee must be in a full time, part time, PRN or PRN/Weekend employment status and completed his/her first 90 days of employment. While this leave does not fall under the protection of the FMLA, WellSpan will use the FMLA procedures and requirements to determine eligibility and administer these leaves. WellSpan will consider these leaves to be job protected for the first 12 weeks of the leave. After that 12 week period, employment may be terminated if the employee is unable to return to work. Employees are not eligible for intermittent leave during their first 12 months of employment. Following the completion of 12 months of employment, all employees will be granted a leave of absence for situations that meet the requirements under FMLA. All employees will be granted a leave of absence for leaves required under the provisions of any law, regulation or ordinance according to the requirements of that law, regulation or ordinance. Examples of this would be Military Leave and time off for jury duty. IV. Length of Leaves Periods of absence from work exceeding three consecutive work days (other than scheduled time off) may qualify for leave. Absence from work for more than three consecutive work days (other than scheduled time off) requires leave of absence documentation and approval. Under the job protection provision of family and medical leaves of absence, an employee is entitled to an annual total of the equivalent of 12 weeks of leave for qualifying absences, or 26 weeks of leave to care for a member of the Armed Forces. That time is counted on a rolling 12-month period measured backward from the date an employee begins the leave of absence.
Job protected leaves of absence associated with pregnancy for medical and family reasons may not exceed 12 weeks as allowed under FMLA. Family leave associated with the birth of a child or placement of a child for adoption or foster care expires at the end of the 12 month period beginning on the date of the birth or placement for adoption or foster care. Non-job protected leave may not exceed one year at the discretion of WellSpan. This includes any job protected leave taken within the most recent 12 month period. All periods of available leave time referred to in this policy and to which employees are entitled are shown as the maximum amount of time available. When the reason for which a leave was granted no longer exists, even if the maximum time has not been used, the employee is required to return to work. Failure to return to work in this circumstance will result in termination. Intermittent Leave of Absence under FMLA: In certain circumstances, intermittent leave may be taken, or leave may be taken by working a reduced schedule, provided the total hours of leave required do not exceed the equivalent of 12 regular work weeks of the individual involved (or 26 work weeks for Service Member Care Give Leave). Intermittent or reduced schedule leave will be granted if medically necessary for a Serious Health Condition of an employee or his or her spouse, child, parent, for a qualifying exigency related to military service or for Service Member Care Giver Leave. Where intermittent or reduced schedule leave is requested, and is based on a foreseeable schedule of planned medical treatment, WellSpan Health reserves the right to temporarily transfer an employee to an available alternative job which has equivalent pay and benefits, and which better accommodates recurring periods of leave than the employee s regular position. V. Payment for Time Off While On Leave of Absence Leave of absence under this policy will be without pay except where Paid Time Off (PTO) is used or where an employee is eligible for short or long term disability benefits under any WellSpan s disability benefit plans. FMLA will run simultaneously with these disability policies. All paid leave used by an employee on FMLA runs concurrently with an employee s FMLA entitlement. Employees may choose to retain up to 40 hours of PTO while on a medical leave for their own Serious Health Condition only and forego pay for time off up to the 40 hours. For qualifying medical leaves of absence, an employee may be eligible for short term disability pay or able to use hours in their Extended Illness Bank, Extended Illness Reserve Bank or Sick Leave Reserve Bank, as more fully
discussed in those policies. All special requests for use of paid time or time without pay must be submitted to the employee s supervisor prior to the end of the pay period during which the request will impact the pay record. For all employees on leave who are granted time off without pay, the supervisor will need to coordinate these special requests, particularly for time off without pay, with the Payroll staff prior to the end of the pay period. For example, if a person on intermittent leave requests to take time off without pay with the intent of making hours up later in that same pay week (not pay period), Payroll will need to be advised not to pay PTO for the hours missed. Failure to advice payroll of this special request could result in the inappropriate payment of overtime hours. Note: Payment using any combination of work time, short term disability (STD), EIB or EIR, SLR and PTO, will not exceed regular weekly authorized hours. For family leave of absence for purposes of the adoption of a child or if the requestor is the father of a newborn child, an employee must utilize PTO for 50% of a single pay period s authorized hours or take this time without pay and may then utilize EIB/EIR/STD for up to five weeks of leave. If the leave continues beyond a six-week period (one week of PTO and five weeks of EIB/EIR/STD), then PTO must be used. For all job protected leaves of absence, the employee will be given service credit for time off, whether paid or unpaid. Payments under WellSpan s disability programs will be offset by any payments the employee may receive through Unemployment Compensation (UC). The employee may not be paid for the same hours by UC and WellSpan s disability programs (STD, EIB, EIR, SLR). VI. Benefits and Job Reinstatement following an FMLA leave WellSpan will continue to pay its portion of health insurance coverage for employees on an FMLA qualifying leave of absence for a period of 12 weeks (except in the case of service member caregiver leave which shall be extended to 26 weeks). During this period of time, the employee is expected to continue to pay the employee portion of all health, dental or vision insurance benefits. If premiums go unpaid for more than 30 days after a payment is due, health, dental or vision insurance coverage will cease upon 15 day s notice of such. No further coverage will be in effect while the employee is on leave.
Upon return to work, the employee will be returned to the same benefit plans (as they exist at the time of the employee s return) that he or she carried prior to leave upon return from leave of absence. In other words, if the employee was enrolled in health, dental and vision plans prior to the leave, he or she would be returned to the current health, dental and vision plans in effect at the time of the return. If the employee has been released to return to work but fails to return at the end of their leave and their benefits were canceled for non payment during the leave, WellSpan may recover from the employee the cost of any payments made for the periods in which premium was unpaid, including the cost of claims paid on behalf of that employee while on leave. Leaves of absence under this policy are not considered a break in service for determining the amount of PTO eligibility or length of continuous service with WellSpan. However, employees do not accrue PTO benefits during an unpaid FMLA or while being paid Short Term Disability benefits and do not receive holiday pay while on leave. Following an FMLA qualifying leave of absence, employees are generally entitled to be return to their former job or to a position with equivalent employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment. In all cases, employees returning from a full medical leave are required to obtain a doctor s note (work clearance note) indicating restrictions, as applicable, and return to work date. This note shall be submitted to Employee Health department prior to the employee s first day of work. The employee will be expected to return to work according to the date shown. Some employees, as determined by the medical condition commencing the leave, will be notified that a face to face, Return to Work (RTW) appointment with Employee Health will be required. Through the leave application process, the employee will be notified if their condition requires a RTW appointment. At the point of anticipated return, if the condition changed (such as development of complications through surgery) it is at the discretion of the Employee Health clinician to request a RTW appointment of any employee on a full medical leave. Employees will be expected to contact their supervisor about their return to work schedule. It is also the employee s responsibility to discuss restrictions with the supervisor prior to the first day back. Leave of Absence (EB-) (continued)
VII. Other Benefits While On Leave Continuation of benefits during a leave will depend on the contract provisions for those benefits. Medical, dental and vision benefits will continue providing the employee pays their portion of the monthly cost in a timely manner. For all other benefits, such as life and disability, please see the Summary Plan Descriptions for those plans. VIII. Outside Employment (Non WellSpan Employment) While on a leave of absence, including FMLA, an employee may not work at any other employment, including self-employment. Failure to abide by this provision may result in the denial of the leave. Employees who are taking leave on an intermittent basis, rather than in full week increments, may engage in outside employment so long as the outside employment is not inconsistent with the stated reasons for the employee s inability to work for WellSpan or so long as the work does not occur during the time the employee would have been working for WellSpan but for the leave. IX. Applying for a Leave of Absence A. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) To apply for a Family or Medical Leave under FMLA, the employee must submit the Leave Application, which is available online at HRONLINE or http://hr.wellspan.org under the Leave of Absence Tab or by calling the Leave Coordinators at Well Advised at 717 812-5018 or 877 466-2415 for assistance. The application will have instructions with it for completion and return to the Leave Coordinators at Well Advised. The first step in the application process is to determine whether the employee is eligible for a leave. In other words, have the service requirements been met or does the employee have any available job protected time. An Employee Notice of Eligibility and Rights & Responsibilities will be sent to employees applying for a leave under FMLA. The second step in the application process is to complete and return all necessary forms and certifications. The Leave Coordinators will then determine whether the requested leave meets the requirements under FMLA. In all situations, it is the responsibility of the employee to obtain, complete and submit the application and certification forms in a timely manner. Notice should be given to the employee s supervisor and Well Advised Leave of Absence Coordinators as far in advance as Leave of Absence (EB-) (continued)
possible, preferably at least 30 days. The employee s failure to fulfill their duties including the submission of information that is incomplete, false or deceptive may be grounds for denial of the leave and, where applicable, termination of employment. In the event that the employee s ability to submit the required forms is limited due to physical, emotional or logistical reasons, the employee s manager, the Leave Coordinators and Human Resources will, upon request, assist with the production and submission of the necessary forms. The Well Advised Leave Coordinators will notify the employee of the approval status of the leave. If the leave is approved for protection under FMLA, they will provide further instructions for calling off of work when the leave begins or when using intermittent leave. They will also provide Return to Work information when the leave has been approved. In the event that a leave is not approved for protection under FMLA, the employee should contact their supervisor and/or Human Resources to discuss other possible options. B. All Other Leaves To apply for a Military, Educational or Personal Leave, complete the Military/Educational/Personal Leave form available at HRONLINE, Forms and Documents or from Human Resources. The completed application should be sent to Human Resources. For further information about Military Leaves, consult Benefits Policy EB105 found at HRONLINE, HR Policies. HRONLINE can be reached from the INET or from http://hr.wellspan.org. Employees will be advised of the approval status of their leave request by Human Resources. Terms You Should Know: Serious Health Condition: A Serious Health condition means an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves: 1. Any period of incapacity or treatment connected with inpatient care, i.e. an overnight stay in a hospital, hospice or residential medical care facility or; Leave of Absence (EB-) (continued)
2. A period of incapacity requiring absence of more than three calendar days from work, school, or other regular daily activities that also involves continuing treatment by (or under the supervision of) a health care provider; or 3. Any period of incapacity due to pregnancy, or for prenatal care; or 4. Any absences to receive multiple treatments (including any period of recovery that follows) by, or on referral by, a health care provider for a condition that likely would result in incapacity of more than three consecutive days if left untreated. 5. Any period of incapacity or treatment for such incapacity due to a chronic serious health condition. 6. A period of incapacity which is permanent or long-term due to a condition for which treatment may not be effective such as Alzheimer s, a severe stroke, or the terminal stages of a disease. Child-Parent Relationship: A parent means a biological, adoptive, step or foster father or mother, or any other individual who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a son or daughter. Son or daughter means a biological, adopted, or foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis, who is either under age 18, or age 18 or older and incapable of self care at the time of the leave request because of a physical or mental disability that qualifies as a disability under ADA at the time that FMLA leave is to commence. Health Care Provider: A doctor of medicine or osteopathy who is authorized to practice medicine or surgery in the state in which he or she practices, and any other person determined under regulations adopted by the U. S. Secretary of Labor to be capable of providing health care services. Covered Service Member: A member of the Armed Forces, including a member of the National Guard or Reserves. Next of Kin: The nearest blood relative to the covered service member other than the service member s spouse, parent, son or daughter. Serious Illness or Injury: An injury or illness incurred in the line of duty that may render the Covered Service Member medically unfit to perform their duties of their office, grade, rank or rating.