OF RECORD: Policy Updates on Sick Leave Accrual and Use: Effective May 13 |
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In February 2015, the City of Philadelphia passed the Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces law, also known as the Philadelphia Sick Leave law. This law will go into effect on Wednesday, May 13, 2015, and requires that employers provide one (1) hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours an employee works in Philadelphia.
As a best employer, the University has long provided generous time-off benefits for regular full-time and part-time faculty and staff. As of May 13, the University will also provide paid sick leave benefits to University-employed temporary employees working in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas.
Human Resources also used this opportunity to update several other sick leave-related policies, which has allowed Human Resources to further strengthen support of faculty and staff in caring for their families and themselves.
Updates have been made to the following policies, with changes effective May 13, 2015:
• Sick Leave: https://www.hr.upenn.edu/myhr/resources/policy/timeoff/sick
• Sick Leave and STD Leave for Employees at or Above Position Grade 29 or Grades E, F, G, H: https://www.hr.upenn.edu/myhr/resources/policy/timeoff/sickgrade28
• Domestic and Sexual Violence Leave:
https://www.hr.upenn.edu/myhr/resources/policy/timeoff/domestic-sexual-violence
• Temporary Extra Persons:
https://www.hr.upenn.edu/myhr/resources/policy/recruitment/temporary-extra-persons
The following summarizes the updates to these policies.
Regular Full-time and Part-time Staff and Full-time Faculty
Policy updates include:
• Increasing the number of sick days in a calendar year that regular faculty and staff may take to care for family members from 3 days to 5 days.
• Ability to take sick days to care for an expanded category of relatives. The expanded definition of family member can be found in the Sick Leave and Temporary Extra Persons policies referenced above.
• Ability to use sick time, if eligible, in cases of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking issues experienced by the faculty/staff member or to support a family member addressing such an issue.
Temporary Staff
Beginning May 13, 2015, temporary workers who are appointed to work or who do work for the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia or the surrounding area (e.g., New Bolton Center, Glenolden) for six (6) or more months in a calendar year will accrue paid sick leave at the rate of one (1) hour of sick leave for every 40 hours worked. Temporary staff who perform work for the University but are employed by an outside agency (e.g., Unique Advantage) are covered by that organization’s programs and are not covered by this policy.
In addition, according to the Philadelphia Sick Leave law:
• Sick time will begin accruing on May 13, or on the date of hire for those hired after May 13.
• For those who have at least six (6) months of University service as of May 13, sick leave will be available for use as it is accrued.
• Staff members who are appointed to work as a temporary worker for less than six (6) months in a calendar year do not accrue paid sick leave.
• Staff members who are appointed as of May 13, 2015 or thereafter for six (6) or more months of service as a temporary worker will begin accruing sick leave upon hire. These staff members will be able to use accrued sick leave beginning on the 90th calendar day after hire.
• Temporary staff may accrue a maximum of 40 hours of paid sick leave in a calendar year.
• Unused sick leave may be carried over into the next calendar year, but a temporary worker may not use more than 40 hours of sick leave in a calendar year.
• Sick leave may be used in situations of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking experienced by the temporary staff member or to support a relative addressing such an issue.
• Temporary workers eligible for sick leave accrual cannot be retaliated or discriminated against for requesting and taking accrued sick time.
Penn will begin accruing and tracking use of sick leave for temporary staff as of May 13. Sick leave used by the temporary worker must be reflected on the worker’s time sheet and entered into the Payroll System as the time is used.
• Earned sick leave will be reflected on pay advices beginning with the May 17 paycheck.
• Eligible temporary staff may view sick leave accruals on their pay advices via the U@Penn portal (https://portal.apps.upenn.edu/penn_portal/u@penn.php). This site requires a PennKey and password. If a temporary staff person does not have a PennKey and password, visit the PennKey support webpage, http://www.upenn.edu/computing/pennkey
If you have questions, please contact your school/center Business Administrator or Human Resources representative, or contact the Human Resources Staff and Labor Relations department at (215) 898-6093. |
