Healthy Families and Workplaces Act

A) Yes. An employee eligible for Healthy Families and Workplaces Act sick leave can earn more than 48 hours of sick leave in a fiscal year. However, an employee may only use 48 hours of sick leave during a fiscal year. Any sick leave earned above the 48 hours (and not used) will be removed from their balance during the annual leave sweep.

Example: A student earned 100 hours in a fiscal year, they used 48 of the sick leave during the fiscal year. The remaining balance is 52. The fiscal year ended so during the leave sweep the student will carry over 48 hours of the 52 and 4 hours will be swept. 

The 48 hour usage limit is only for employees eligible as part of HWFA. University Staff, Classified Staff, and some contract employees have different rules regarding usage.

A) An employee eligible for one sick leave program across multiple positions does not have a different limit for each position; the combined positions share one balance with one set of rules regarding accrual rates, maximum annual usage, maximum carry-over balance, etc.

When an employee has multiple sick leave enrollments, each balance is separately evaluated. For example, a University Staff employee who is also a student employee could accumulate 48 hours of sick leave on their student position, and carry a separate, additional balance for their University Staff position. Each balance has different rules regarding how much is accrued each pay period, how much can be used, and how much is carried over or swept each year.

Note: Employees enrolled in the state sick leave plan (e.g. students) can be restricted to 48 hours of sick usage each fiscal year, even if they have a balance greater than 48 hours. This is based on the usage across all positions attached to that benefits record with that leave enrollment. It is a campus responsibility to track and enforce this limit.

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A) Yes, a temporary employee will accrue 0.034 hours of sick leave for every hour worked.

A) Yes, sick leave will apply to graduate hourly students.

A) All employees on contracts are eligible for sick leave.

However, instead of accruing sick leave each pay period contract employees will be granted a lump sum of hours either in HCM or managed at the campus level. Depending on what type of contract the employee is on (student contract, 12-month Faculty, 9-month Faculty, etc.) there are different accrual rates, and accruals sometimes prorate based on part-time/full-time status. See “How much will I accrue?” on the employee FAQ page.

Contract balances that are to be loaded to HCM will be done by Campus Human Resources each semester or as needed. Contact your Campus HR office for details.

A) No. One benefit record number can only have one sick leave enrollment. When an employee requires multiple enrollments, a benefit record number split is required. This creates two separate “buckets” of leave. They cannot share sick leave plans since they are accumulated differently. 

A) This depends on how the secondary appointment is structured. If an employee’s secondary appointment is designed to not record hours worked and only pays the employee’s compensation for the additional job responsibilities associated with the secondary appointment, then the secondary appointment should not accrue leave because their primary appointment is where hours worked are recorded.

If, however, an employee’s primary and secondary appointments split the employee’s total Standard Hours, then both appointments should accrue leave.

A) There is no waiting period. The hours reported on the employee’s first paycheck will count towards their sick leave accrual.

Employees on contract who have their balance tracked in HCM will have hours loaded at the campus level near the start of each semester or when appropriate. Talk to your Campus HR office for details.

A) No, they will not be paid for any hours that exceed their sick leave accrual balance.

The employee will be docked for overuse of their sick leave on their paycheck for the amount the employee reported but did not have available to use. The dock will look slightly different whether the employee is paid biweekly or monthly, but in both situations a dock code will be present on the employee’s paycheck to denote the overuse.

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A) Yes. Employees can use sick leave in 15-minute increments (0.25 hours). This follows the CU rounding policy for other hours.

A) Sick leave accrual will be evaluated during the leave sweep period and existing balances will be reduced to 48 hours maximum at that time for those employees enrolled in the state sick leave plans. This is done every fiscal year, which runs from July 1 through June 30 of the following year.

Note: Due to the sick leave legislation being effective at the start of the calendar year, it is anticipated that no sweep will occur the first fiscal year leave sweep on July 2021 for newly-eligible employees. Balances will be held and swept during the leave sweep in 2022.

A) Not necessarily. Terminated employees who return to work at CU must have their prior sick balance reinstated if they return to work within 6 months of termination.

Terminated employees who do not return to work within 6 months forfeit any balance remaining from their prior employment.

Note: If the employee is an active employee in any position, they would not forfeit their leave balance.

A) Work-study rules do not allow for the funding of sick leave. Unlike other recorded time, students’ use of sick leave will not apply to the work-study. This leave will apply to the student’s default position funding unless a SpeedType override is applied.

A) No. Sick leave is not deducted from the work-study award. Sick leave will default to the employee’s position funding for that job record and 100% will be paid for by the department.

A) No, a student on a stipend is not considered to have an employee relationship, so they will not accrue sick leave. Similarly, emeritus and others in a “non-employee” relationship are not eligible for leave.

A) When an employee has multiple positions that share the same benefits record, the employee’s sick balance is also shared with those positions. If these positions are in different departments, the employee is free to use their total sick balance in either department. By default, their sick leave will match the default speedtype of the job record the sick was recorded on. Decisions about changing the funding for such situations are handled at the campus level. Contact your campus HR for information on how this should be handled.

Note: Employees should not be reporting sick leave usage beyond the normally scheduled hours. For example, an employee would not report 40 hours of sick in one week for a position where the employee only works 10 hours a week.

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A) An employer can run the Leave Taken report in HCM for the employee (CUES_HCM_LEAVE_TAKEN) or ask their payroll liaison to run the report. They can also find a collection of available leave-related queries in the HCM Community blog.

A) Departments can run the Leave Accrual Summary query (CUES_HCM_LEAVE_ACCRUAL_SUM).They can also find a collection of available leave-related queries in the HCM Community blog.

Employee Services is evaluating the leave accrual queries to better accommodate the new sick leave legislation and will announce those changes when they are finalized.