Sick Days Policy Changed

University works to comply with new state regulations

Krista ClawsonTHE SANTA CLARAMay 21 , 2015[dropcap]S[/dropcap]anta Clara is beginning preparations to implement a new California law: the Healthy Families, Healthy Workplace Act. It will take effect July 1, 2015.

The recent piece of Sacramento legislation requires employers to grant paid sick leave to employees, including non-benefits eligible employees and student employees, who work at least 30 days a year.

Come July, student employees will begin accumulating one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, with a cap of 48 hours.

“Human Resources has communicated this upcoming change to the [Santa Clara] community and has been working on updates to our payroll system so that we’re able to track sick leave accruals per hours worked for each employee,” said Charlie Ambelang, Assistant Director of HR for Learning and Leadership Development.

These changes will be explained more in-depth in Policy #613 of the Student Employee Handbook beginning in July.

“Human  Resources is still trying to communicate the policy to those impacted,” Ambelang said. “This process will take some time, but we do not see any difficulties right now.”

Staff who are already eligible for benefits will not experience a change in the amount of time permitted for sick leave.

However, they may now take sick leave for absences due to domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.

Unused sick leave will carry over year-to-year.

For non-benefits eligible employees, it will carry over to a maximum of 48 hours. Benefits eligible employees can accumulate up to 640 hours. These unused sick leave hours will not be paid out if an employee leaves Santa Clara.

For an employee to use sick leave, he or she should call in sick to the department in which they work and record the hours on a timesheet to be reviewed and approved by a manager.

It is still unclear whether departments will be granted an increased budget to pay off the new sick leave hours.

The University Budget Office and Human Resources are working together to determine if this will be necessary.

Contact Krista Clawson at kclawson@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.