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Personal, immediate family, parental, and death of an immediate family member
Sick leave-accruing Academic Personnel, USPS and TEAMS employees begin earning sick leave from the time they are employed; it is credited on the last day of each pay period. There is no waiting period for using sick leave. Employee may only use what is available in the balance prior to future accrual.
Full-time eligible Academic Personnel, TEAMS and USPS employees earn four hours each biweekly pay period, or a number of hours that is directly proportionate to the number of hours in pay status during less than a full pay period. Sick leave for part-time employees is earned in proportion to the amount of time in pay status during each pay period. There is no limit to the amount of sick leave employees may accrue.
Earned sick leave may be approved for time off from work because of your exposure to a contagious disease that may endanger others, for your personal visits to doctors or dentists, and for your personal illness which includes disability caused, or contributed to, by pregnancy. Sick leave also may be used for parental leave. Please view the FMLA page for more information.
Additionally, sick leave may be used in reasonable amounts for illness, injury, or death within your immediate family (up to 30 days), pending supervisory approval. In instances of a serious medical condition of you or a member of your family, you may be eligible for an extended medical leave of absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or UF’s Extended Leave of Absence program. Please view the FMLA page for more information.
Regardless of the amount of sick leave originally approved by your supervisor, sick leave may be used only in the amount necessary to bring you to your regular FTE, not to exceed the 40-hour workweek.
Medical Certification for Sick Leave
At the discretion of the immediate supervisor or other appropriate authority, medical certification of sick leave use may be required under the following circumstances:
- When an Academic Personnel, TEAMS or USPS employee’s absences are excessive (what is considered excessive is based on departmental policy, but the policy must be applied consistently)
- When a pattern has emerged (an example would be employees who consistently call in sick on the Friday prior to a three-day weekend)
- When an employee has been absent three times in any 30-day period. These absences need not be full days.
Note: Medical certification should only be submitted to UFHR Central Leave Office
Separation from Employment
TEAMS, USPS, and Out-of Unit Faculty
No payment for sick leave will be made for any type of separation from employment. If you transfer to a leave-accruing position within the University of Florida, your sick leave balance will be transferred.
Faculty Covered by the Collective Bargaining Unit Agreement Hired Prior To 04/01/2010
If you separate from university employment after you have completed at least ten years of creditable service*, you or your beneficiary will be paid for part of your unused sick leave credits. Unused sick leave credits are paid at the rate of 1/4 of unused credits earned, not to exceed an actual payment of 480 hours, see Leave Entitlement & Cashout Chart. If you transfer to a leave-accruing position within the University of Florida, your sick leave balance will be transferred.
*Time spent on personal leaves of absence does not count toward the requirement for 10 years of creditable service for purposes of sick leave cash-out.
Sick Leave Pool
The university’s Sick Leave Pool enables employees to combine a portion of their accrued sick leave for collective use. Members of the Sick Leave Pool may be able to draw upon the pool because of personal catastrophic illness or injury.
UF’s Definition of Immediate Family
For the purpose of UF sick leave use and extended medical leaves of absence, the university’s definition for “immediate family” is defined as an employee’s spouse, domestic partner, great-grandparent, grandparent, parent, brother, sister, child, grandchild, or the grandparent, parent, brother, sister, child, grandchild, or great-grandchild of the employee’s spouse or domestic partner, or the spouse or domestic partner of any of them. This also includes individuals for whom the employee is the current legal guardian.
Federal (FMLA) Definition of Family
An employee’s spouse, children (son or daughter), and parents are immediate family members for purposes of FMLA. FMLA-specific information can be found here.
Please note that the UF definition of immediate family is different and broader than the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) definition of immediate family.
If an employee anticipates being out of the office on a regular basis to care for a family member that meets the UF definition but not that for FMLA, Central Leave would still recommend that the employee submit a completed Certification of Health Care Provider for Family Member’s Serious Health Condition to our office.
Leave Payout through the Special Pay Plan
The Special Pay Plan is a mandatory retirement plan available to salaried (non-OPS) employees for sick and vacation payments at the time of separation.