UC next year will enact a new paid family leave benefit for faculty and staff, providing eight weeks off at 70 percent of wages to care for seriously ill family members or to bond with new children.
VACATION ACCRUAL
Policy-covered staff are being allowed to exceed accrual caps on vacation hours, through the end of the year, in consideration of the pandemic’s interference with employees’ vacation plans (say, because of increased workload or restrictions on travel).
The benefit, which aligns with what the state of California provides its employees, is due to take effect July 1, 2021. The benefit is subject to collective bargaining for represented employees.
UCnet reported July 13 that the Council of Chancellors had unanimously approved a recommendation for the new benefit, and that it also had the support of President Janet Napolitano and systemwide Human Resources. The recommendation came from a workgroup representing staff and academic personnel, legal, HR and leadership.
Staff advisors to the Board of Regents, and groups like the Systemwide Advisory Council on the Status of Women and the Council of University of California Staff Assemblies, or CUCSA, have been advocating for this benefit for many years.
“The chancellors were in agreement that this is the right thing to do for our employees,” said Cheryl Lloyd, interim vice president of systemwide HR. “Offering paid family leave adds the University of California to the list of other top employers that recognize how important it is to have family friendly policies and practices to recruit and retain the best.”
Over the next year, HR, academic personnel and faculty leaders from across the UC system, and other key stakeholders, will collaborate on developing the new benefit, detailing how it will be implemented and how it will be coordinated with existing leave policies as well as paid family leave benefits already in place at some locations.
Media Resources
Dateline Staff, 530-752-6556, dateline@ucdavis.edu