Policy

Health & Safety Leave (Sick Leave)

Paid sick leave is available for faculty, staff, and student employees who are unable to work due to one of these reasons:

1. Inability to work due to a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition;
2. Obtaining preventive medical care (including vaccination), or medical diagnosis/care/treatment;
3. Needs due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or criminal harassment including medical attention, mental health care or other counseling, legal or other victim services, or relocation;
4. Care for a family member who needs the sort of care listed above;
5. During a public health emergency, a public official closed the employee’s workplace, or the school or place of care of the employee’s child;
6. Bereavement, or financial/legal needs after a death of a family member; or,
7. Due to inclement weather, power/heat/water loss, or other unexpected event the employee must
   1. evacuate their residence, or
   2. care for a family member whose school or place of care was closed.

Accrual

Full- and part-time benefit eligible hourly staff accrue sick leave at the rate of .0462 hours for each hour worked.  The maximum accrual is 160 hours.

Full- and part-time benefit eligible exempt staff accrue sick leave at the rate of 4 hours each pay period (pro-rated for exempt staff working less than 40 hours per week). The maximum accrual is 160 hours. 

Newly hired full- and part-time benefit eligible staff will receive 24 hours of sick leave.

Non-benefit-eligible staff, occasional and temporary employees and student workers accrue sick leave upon hire at the rate of .0333 hours for each hour worked.  The maximum accrual is 48 hours.

Sick leave balances are not paid out upon termination of employment or retirement.

Previous employees who are rehired within six months of termination will have their previous sick leave balances reinstated.

The college reserves the right to request medical certification of absenteeism due to circumstances that necessitate missing 4 or more consecutive shifts. This request will be coordinated by Human Resources or The Hartford, depending upon the circumstances.

Short Term Disability

The college offers self-funded short-term disability leave to full- and part-time, benefit eligible, exempt, and hourly staff and faculty who have a serious health condition. Employees should apply to The Hartford for Short Term Disability (as well as FML and Colorado Paid Family leave – all of which run concurrently to the extent they are available).   

Short-term-disability may run for a maximum of six months.  All leave that an employee is eligible for runs concurrently and for staff may last no longer than 6 months from beginning to end.  Staff who are unable to return to work after a maximum 6 month absence will be terminated and should work with The Hartford to place a long-term disability claim.  

Paid Medical Leave for Faculty

Faculty may take sick leave for any of the reasons noted in the policy above and should manage their own sick leave in consultation with their Department Chair and Dean of the Faculty.  

If it is anticipated that the leave will fall into one of the reasons identified in the FML policy or the COPFML policy or for the employee’s own serious health condition (short term disability), the employee should also make application for leave with The Hartford and notify their department chair. Faculty may be approved for a paid medical leave for a period of up to 6 months under the short-term disability benefit.

Unpaid Leave for Faculty

A faculty member who has been granted a paid medical leave and is unable to return to work is eligible for an unpaid leave only after the exhaustion of the paid leave and approval by the Dean of the Faculty. 

The maximum period for a leave (both paid and unpaid) before the faculty member is required to return to work is 24 consecutive months in totality (counting consecutive months, not blocks). 

Public Health Emergency Leave

When a public health emergency is declared (and four weeks after its end) employees may take up to two weeks of paid leave for one of these reasons:

1. self-isolating or work exclusion due to exposure, symptoms, or diagnosis of the communicable illness in the public health emergency;
2. seeking a diagnosis, treatment, or care (including preventive care) of such an illness;
3. being unable to work due to a health condition that may increase susceptibility to or risk of such an illness; or,
4. caring for a child or other family in category (1)-(3), or whose school or child care is unavailable due to the public health emergency.

During a public health emergency, employees will have public health emergency leave as an option on their timesheets and leave reports.  Faculty may access Public Health Emergency Leave by notice to their Department Chair.

Employee Rights Protected

Colorado College will not take retaliatory personnel actions or discriminate against an employee or former employee because the person exercised, attempted to exercise, or supported the exercise of rights protected under the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act. 

Procedures

If an employee requires health & safety leave (for any of the reasons identified in the policy above) they should notify their supervisor (department chair in the case of faculty) immediately of their need.  Please note that some of the reasons for taking leave identified above would also qualify for leave using CO PFML and/or FML and/or short-term disability.

When leave is eligible for one or more leave plan it will run concurrently and, if approved for Colorado Paid Family Leave, will not require the use of sick leave from the employee’s accrued health & safety (sick) leave bank.

Employees who anticipate being absent or who have been absent for four or more consecutive workdays must also notify the college’s leave administrator, The Hartford. The Hartford will determine if the leave taken is covered under the Family Medical Leave Act, The Colorado Paid Family Leave plan, and/or the college’s Short Term Disability plan. 

Hourly staff and student employees report health & safety leave in 15-minute increments on their time sheets. Exempt staff report health & safety leave in 1-hour increments on their leave report.  Faculty work with their department chair to report leave.

Definitions

Family member

• an employee’s immediate family member (a person who is related by blood, marriage, civil union, or adoption)
• a child to whom the employee stands in loco parentis or a person who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a minor
• A person for whom the employee is responsible for providing or arranging health- or safety-related care.

Contacts: 

• Leave Plan Administrator for COPFML, FML, STD (The Hartford)
  • 888-301-5615 (hours 6 AM – 6 PM Mountain Time)
    Employee Portal for claims:  https://abilityadvantage.thehartford.com
• CC Benefits Manager
  • 719-389-6104
  • leave@coloradocollege.edu