New staff family leave options benefit parents and caregivers

A new family leave for staff policy becomes effective tomorrow, Sept. 1. This new policy is intended to grant benefits-eligible staff members time off to care for their newborn, newly adopted or foster-care children and for seriously ill family members. It complements a number of different kinds of leave that Cornell offers, as well as a longstanding flexibility policy and the Adoption Assistance Program that became effective last January, to help balance the demands of the workplace, personal responsibilities and the needs of staff families.

There are two parts to the family leave for staff policy: the parental leave benefit and the family health leave benefit. In support of adoptive and foster parents as well as birth parents, the new parental leave benefit will provide up to 16 weeks of time off for family bonding. The parental leave benefit is designed to become effective after the birth of a child and during or after the adoption process, giving new mothers and fathers time to be at home with their child to help with the transition to a larger family.

Since the 1970s, short-term disability leave has been used for time taken away from work during an expectant mother's pregnancy, and it will continue to apply for that purpose. The new parental leave benefit can immediately follow the short-term disability leave to extend the time a mother has with her newborn(s) or at any time during the first 12 months following a child's birth. Up to four of the 12 weeks of parental leave will be provided at half pay for the birth mother. In addition, the father or same-sex partner of a birth mother -- if he or she is a benefits-eligible employee of the university -- also will be able to take parental leave from his or her position and receive the same half-pay benefit for up to four weeks.

Employees who adopt a child do not generally qualify for a short-term disability leave of absence, yet they still need time to be with their new family member. Under the parental leave benefit, adoptive parents may qualify for up to six weeks of half pay. However, if both adoptive parents are eligible Cornell employees, they will need to identify which parent is the primary caregiver. The primary caregiver will be able to use up to six weeks of half-paid parental leave. The other parent in the family, if she or he is also a benefits-eligible Cornell employee, will qualify for up to four weeks of half pay under the plan.

Foster parents are eligible for the full 16 weeks of parental leave, but they cannot receive the four weeks of half pay.

The new rules for parental leave time taken by foster parents and the balances of the duration of parental leave for birth and adoptive parents beyond the four or six weeks of half pay are explained by Paul Bursic, director of Benefit Services in the Office of Human Resources: "To help with the financial aspects of the unpaid portion of the leave, staff members will be able to supplement their paid parental leave benefit with vacation time, up to full pay. Parental leave participants will also be able to use up to 10 sick leave days from their accruals to supplement the parental leave half-pay benefit."

The second aspect of the family leave for staff policy, family health leave, provides up to 12 weeks in a year of unpaid leave for the care of a seriously ill family member. Staff can apply available accrued vacation, personal leave (up to 3 days) and/or health care leave (up to 3 days) to supplement their time off with partial or full pay. In addition, approved family health leave allows a staff member to apply up to 10 days of accrued sick leave, if available. "We wanted to make sure that our staff not only have the time they need to care for another family member, which was the purpose of the federal FML [Family and Medical Leave] Act, but also are better able to afford taking that time off," said Mary Opperman, vice president for human resources. "Our new family leave benefit is designed to help those staff who are having difficulty balancing their work and financial responsibilities with the intensive caregiving stresses that come when serious health conditions arise."

The full family leave for staff policy is part of the time-away-from-work policy and can be found at: http://www.policy.cornell.edu/vol6_9.cfm. More details on this policy will be available on the Office of Human Resources Web site and in the next For Your Benefit, due out in mid-September. Staff with questions should call their human resources representative or the Workers' Compensation/Disability Services unit of OHR at 255-7836.

 

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