Sick Leave Pool

The university’s Sick Leave Pool is a way for employees to combine a portion of their individually accrued sick leave for collective use.

If you join the Sick Leave Pool, you may request a grant of hours from the pool to cover absences from work due to your own (not family) catastrophic injury or illness. Employees are eligible to submit a request to the Sick Leave Pool Committee once their accrued leave balances have been or are nearly exhausted, regardless of the reason for previous use of leave. Catastrophic injury or illness is defined as a severe condition or combination of conditions affecting the mental or physical health of the employee that has resulted in a life-threatening condition and/or has had a major impact on life functions.

To be eligible to participate in the Sick Leave Pool, you must be appointed to a sick leave-accruing position—such as TEAMS, USPS, or Academic Personnel line —and have a minimum of 64 hours of sick leave on balance if you are full-time. Full-time employees whose applications are accepted will contribute eight hours of sick leave automatically to the Sick Leave Pool. All figures associated with the sick leave pool are figured on a prorated basis for part-time employees.

To enroll in the pool, you must submit an application for membership during the annual October open enrollment period.

Please note: The granting of Sick Leave Pool hours in no way limits the university’s rights to proceed with any employment or disciplinary action. Should an employee transfer, retire, resign, or be terminated from University of Florida employment, he or she will be terminated from the Sick Leave Pool on the date of the personnel action. Any unused hours will be returned to the pool, and the employee will not receive any payment for those unused hours.