January 7, 2021
Dear Assistant Dean, AO, HR Partner, or HR Payroll communications group member,
This week, Support Staff pay statements include a message that directs employees to a webpage describing a change in how Personal Leave will be handled as a result of the implementation of the PFMLA. We want to make you aware of the message and the associated information, which is available on the HR website (Touchstone required).
As you know, effective January 1, 2021, Support Staff will accrue one day of Sick Leave each month, instead of being provided twelve Sick days at the start of each anniversary year. Employees will see the monthly accrual to their Sick balances on the pay statement issued the week following their monthly anniversary date.
As in the past, employees are entitled to use three of their Sick days as Personal Leave. Employees will continue to enter either the Personal Leave or Sick time code on their time sheets. There is no change to the Personal Leave policy for Support Staff.
What is changing is the display of Sick and Personal Leave time on the paystub. In the past, Personal Leave balances and Sick leave balances were listed as separate items on employee pay statements. Now, Personal Leave balances have been rolled back into employees' Sick leave balances. So, employees will only see a balance called "Sick" listed on their pay statements, which includes both unused Sick and Personal Leave time.
This change in how Sick and Personal Leave is displayed has been implemented this week. During the transitional period of January, the paystub will show a zero balance for their Personal Leave balance, but any unused Personal Leave time is now included in the Sick time balance. Again, this is just a change in how the time is displayed; there is no reduction in employee's Personal Leave time.
In late January 2021, to help employees avoid exceeding their Personal Leave time usage limits, the Payroll system will not permit the use of the "Personal Leave" time code once the three days have been exhausted. HR and Payroll will work together on an audit to ensure accuracy in reporting Personal Leave time until the Payroll system is updated.
For those of you who may not be aware, Cognos has specific absence reports available on Atlas for administrators with authorization. These reports provide information on the dates, hours used, and Leave balances for each Support Staff employee.
Please note, this change does not apply to Service Staff at this time. If you have any questions, please contact leavepolicies@mit.edu.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Walsh
Director, Special Projects and Compliance
Human Resources