January 15, 2021
Dear Colleagues,
We would like to keep you informed about some updates on the implementation of the new Massachusetts Paid Family Medical Leave and MIT Leave Policies effective January 1, 2021.
Current and New Leave Processing
- Human Resources is working with Payroll to ensure current and new leaves are processed under the new policies and PFMLA.
- Employees on continuous or intermittent serious illness leaves, and the appropriate pay policy rate (SIRP, State Rate, etc.) are being processed through new leave transactions in SAP
- Any salaried employee on a continuous serious illness leave, who elected sick time, will have the time deducted from their balances by Payroll when the leave action is processed.
- Time taken for intermittent serious illness leaves for salaried staff should be reported to DSMLO on a weekly basis starting January 19, 2020. The dates should be sent by the supervisor or DLC HR contact to hr-dsmlo@mit.edu; DSMLO will work with Payroll to record the time taken and reduce the sick time balances.
- Support Staff will continue to report their sick or other serious illness leaves through their timesheets. Information is below on new absence types.
- There are currently no changes to how leaves are processed for Service Staff.
- All new leaves should be requested through DSMLO with the process in place prior to January 1, 2021, until we move to Workpartners. We anticipate that move to Workpartners in March 2021.
Salaried Sick Balances/Time Tracking
- All salaried (exempt) staff except faculty must report sick time through the Atlas tool starting January 1, 2021.
- Sick leave balances for salaried staff will be available for employees in the Sick Time Reporting (Salaried Staff tool) also in Atlas, by early February.
- Salaried employees can use the Sick Bank Balance Calculator for an estimate of their balance.
- A Cognos report for DLC use, similar to the Support/Service Staff absence report and absence balances report, is being created for salaried staff and should be available soon.
Support Staff Sick Balance Accruals and Absence Codes
- Support Staff began accruing sick leave on a monthly basis effective 1/1/2021 with the implementation of the new sick leave policies.
- Support Staff sick balances will be adjusted monthly to reflect the change to monthly accruals.
- In order to implement MIT's new Leave Policies, new Payroll Absence Codes have been created. These Absence Codes apply to the following Absence Types:
- Employee Health Condition
- Pregnancy/Maternity
- Paid Parental/Bonding
- Family Health Condition
- Family Leave - Members of the Armed Services
For your reference, we have posted new Absence Types for Support Staff employees' absences. The chart describes the Absence Codes that should be used for various leave situations and also includes the Pay Level that is associated with each Absence Code (100%, 80%, or the State Formula Rate).
Service Staff Update
- Discussions are underway between Labor Relations and the unions' representatives regarding MIT's new leave provisions. At this point, employees who are unionized are covered by the PFMLA as follows:
- Employee's own serious health condition: Extended Sick Leave (75%) if eligible for ESL; or at State Formula Rate if not eligible for ESL or if that is higher than 75% of pay
- Service Staff employees are eligible for ESL after one year of service
- For new parents, Bonding Leave (12 weeks @ State Formula Rate; or 4 weeks of Paid Parental Leave @ 100% of pay followed by 8 weeks @ State Formula Rate)
- Service Staff are eligible for 4 weeks of PPL after one year of service
- Leaves to care for family members in the Armed Forces (for exigencies or to care for an injured Servicemember)
- Employee's own serious health condition: Extended Sick Leave (75%) if eligible for ESL; or at State Formula Rate if not eligible for ESL or if that is higher than 75% of pay
Revisions to Leave Policies in EPM and P&P
The Employee Policy Manual Section 4 on Leaves was significantly revised to describe the new policies. The two key sections are Section 4.3, Leaves for Employee Injury or Illness, and Section 4.4, Family Leaves.
We also revised the other sections in Section 4, some just with updates or conforming changes (e.g., references to accruing sick time or revised section numbers); some conforming changes were also made to other sections of EPM and also to P&P. We also streamlined Section 4 on Leaves. For example, various other paid or partially paid leaves - personal leave, bereavement, jury duty, leave for victims of domestic violence, and voting leave - are now found in Section 4.7, Other Types of Leaves, and Unpaid Leaves are now in Section 4.8.
As you can see there is a great deal of complexity with these new leaves. If you have questions about these updates, please contact leavepolicies@mit.edu or your HRO.
Sincerely,
Jennifer