A variety of leaves are available to eligible College employees. Please follow the procedures outlined below and contact Human Resource Management at 878-4821 with any questions prior to initiating any paperwork.
Cancer Screening
Effective March 18, 2018, Section 159-b of the Civil Service Law was amended to allow all employees to take up to four (4) hours of paid leave annually for the screening of ALL cancers. Cancer screening includes physical exams, blood work or other laboratory tests for the detection of cancer. Reasonable travel time is included in the four-hour cap. Absence beyond the four-hour cap must be charged to leave credits. Employees who undergo screenings outside their regular work schedules do so on their own time. Official medical documentation verifying the screening may be required. These leaves are not cumulative and expire on the last day of the calendar year. Resource: www.cs.ny.gov/attendance_leave/PolBull18-02.cfm
Bone Marrow and/or Organ Donation, Leave for
Section 202-b of the New York State Labor Law provides that any employee of the State will be allowed up to seven workdays of leave with pay without charge to accruals to undergo a medical procedure to donate bone marrow and up to 30 workdays to serve as an organ donor. Official medical documentation is required. Forms may be obtained from Human Resource Management.
Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Affirmative Action/Diversity Leave Program
The Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Affirmative Action/Diversity Leave Program enhances employment opportunities for UUP represented employees who are preparing for permanent or continuing appointments, with preference given to minorities, women, employees with disabilities, or an employee with military status. The types of support available include: payment of employee’s regular salary by the campus; salary for a replacement, and other related expenses for research or study with a justification.
Full-time, term employees in a positions eligible for permanent or continuing appointment who have had at least one term-renewal or prior service credit may apply for this Leave. Details about eligibility requirements and the application procedure can be found in the program guidelines at http://nysuup.lmc.ny.gov/diversity/drescher.html.
Applications for leaves for the Fall Semester 2016 must be submitted to the Joint Labor Management Committee (see guidelines) by March 9, 2016. Such applications must be accompanied by various documents, including letters of endorsement from the campus (your respective Provost, Vice President, CIO or CDO) and the Dean (for academic employees). Such endorsement must indicate the campus’s financial contribution of a minimum of 40% of the cost of salary for a replacement for the duration of the leave and a minimum of 40% of the total project or activity expenses.
To allow time for securing the required documentation, Buffalo State applicants should follow the following procedure:
Family & Medical Leave (FMLA)
The categories of FMLA are as follows:
To be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee must have worked at Buffalo State for at least 12 months immediately before the leave request and have worked at least 1250 hours during the 12 months immediately preceding the leave request. The 1250 work hour requirement also applies when an employee is reapplying for FMLA for a new calendar year. If the need for FMLA does not end with the end of a calendar year, the employee must have worked 1250 actual work hours in the prior calendar year to meet eligibility for FMLA coverage for the new calendar year. If eligible, the employee's FMLA entitlement will be for up to 12 weeks in the new calendar year.
FMLA and the NDAA:
The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008 (NDAA), Pub. L. 110-181, amends the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to permit a "spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin" to take up to 26 workweeks of leave to care for a "member of the Armed Forces, including a member of the National Guard or Reserves, who is undergoing medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy, is otherwise in outpatient status, or is otherwise on the temporary disability retired list, for a serious injury or illness." The NDAA also permits an employee to take FMLA leave for "any qualifying exigency, arising out of the fact that the spouse, or a son, daughter, or parent of the employee is on active duty (or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty) in the Armed Forces in support of a contingency operation."
Jury Duty
If you are required to appear for jury duty or are subpoenaed as a witness in court, you shall be granted a leave of absence with pay without charge to leave accruals. If you are a party to a court proceeding, you will have to charge accruals other than sick for all such absences. Prior to attending jury duty, notify your supervisor and provide him/her with a copy of your orders from the court. Once you attend jury duty, the court will provide you with another document verifying your service. Provide this document to your supervisor or Human Resource Management.
Leave Donation Program
The leave donation program was established to reduce financial hardship that might be endured by an employee who has exhausted all leave accruals during a personal extended medical leave of absence. Vacation accruals are the only leave credits that may be used for this purpose. The program is not intended to provide supplemental income that would result in wages greater than the employee's regular pay.
The program is open to all College employees. Any eligible employee at the College may donate accruals to a coworker in a different bargaining unit at Buffalo State or another SUNY campus.
Donor Eligibility
In order to donate vacation credits, an employee must meet the following criteria: must have a minimum balance of ten (10) days after making the donation AND must be employed at a SUNY campus.
The 10-day minimum is based on the donor's work schedule. For example, a 40 hour a week employee must have 80 hours of vacation remaining after a donation, a 50% 37½ hour a week part-time employee must have 37½ hours remaining, and so forth.
Regardless of the donor's work schedule, donations must be made in full day (7.5 or 8 hour) units. Where the donor and recipient's workweeks are different (37½ vs. 40), donated days will be converted.
Excess vacation credits that would otherwise be lost by rule, law, or regulation may not be donated. The identity of donors will be kept confidential by the College.
Eligibility for Recipients of Donated Leave
In order to receive donated leave credits, a classified employee must meet the following criteria:
The asterisked (*) items above also apply to UUP represented employees.
There is no maximum number of days that a recipient employee may accept, however, donated credits cannot be used to extend employment beyond the point it would otherwise end by operation of law, rule, or regulation. A recipient's continuing eligibility to participate in this program will be reviewed at least every 30 days.
Use of Donated Credits
At the recipient's request, donated credits may be used upon exhaustion of leave accruals and/or sick leave at half pay. Donated credits applied after leave accruals have been exhausted but before sick leave at half pay, must be used after exhaustion of sick leave at half pay, they may be used in full or half day increments at the employee's option based on their work schedule. (Using donated credits in half-day units has the effect of extending one's half pay eligibility.)
An employee using donated credits is considered to be in a leave without pay status. However, deductions for health insurance premiums, retirement contributions, etc., will continue to be withheld as long as the amount of the paycheck is large enough. Also, employees continue to accrue retirement service credit while using donated leave.
Solicitations
Donations may be solicited by the recipient employee, coworkers of the recipient, or by local union representatives where applicable. Neither managers nor Human Resource Management staff may solicit donations on an employee's behalf.
Processing of Donated Credits
Employees who wish to donate vacation accruals to a recipient must complete a Leave Donation Form. Human Resource Management will determine whether the employee to whom credits have been donated is eligible, provided the recipient is employed at Buffalo State. If the recipient is employed at another SUNY campus, the College's Payroll Office will verify the recipient's status with their facility's payroll office.
When an employee receives donated credits from several donors, one day is deducted from each donor at a time. If the donor's total donation has not been exhausted by the time the recipient returns to work, the unused vacation will be restored to the donor.
Leave Without Pay
Maternity and Child Care (Professional Services Negotiating Unit)
Sick leave may be used only during a period of medical disability. Under this policy, disabilities arising from pregnancy or childbirth are treated the same as other disabilities in terms of eligibility for or entitlement to sick leave. Generally, the period of such disability is deemed to commence approximately four weeks prior to delivery. While doctor's certificates may be required for any period of disability, Human Resource Management must have medical documentation whenever disability is claimed to commence prior to or to extend beyond the period of disability described above.
A Chief Administrative Officer or designee may approve an employee's request for leave without pay during pregnancy and prior to the onset of any medical disability as a matter of discretion. Absences during pregnancy and following childbirth may be charged to vacation, irrespective of whether the employee is disabled. While the use of annual leave prior to the onset of medical disability is discretionary with the Chief Administrative Officer, employees must be permitted to use these accruals during a period of medical disability after sick leave with pay has been exhausted.
Employees, regardless of sex, are entitled to leave without pay for child care for up to seven months following the date of delivery. For purposes of computing the seven month period of mandatory leave, periods during which the employee was absent for "disability" or use of leave credits are included: the mandatory seven month period is not extended by the granting of disability leave or the use of accrued leave. During a period of leave for child care, employees shall be permitted, upon request, to use annual leave before being granted leave without pay. As is the case with other mandatory leaves without pay (e.g., military leave), the University shall not require that employees exhaust all appropriate leave credits prior to being granted leave without pay for child care. Sick leave may be used only during a period of medical disability. Except in the case of continuing medical disability, any leave of absence beyond the seventh month following childbirth shall be at the discretion of the Chief Administrative Officer. An employee who requests a leave for child care of less than seven months is entitled to have such leave extended, upon request, up to the seventh month maximum and may at the discretion of the Chief Administrative Officer or designee, have such leave extended beyond the seventh month. In certain situations, an employee may not be permitted to return from such leave until the expiration of the period that such employee requested and was granted. Generally, such restrictions on early return are limited to situations where such return would be disruptive of a project or where the termination of a replacement would occur.
During the seven month period following childbirth, the granting of leave for child care is mandatory upon request from either parent. If both parents are State employees, leave for the child care is mandatory for one parent at a time and the parents may elect to split the mandatory seven month leave into two separate blocks of leave with each parent entitled to one continuous period of leave but not to exceed a combined total of seven months of leave and not to extend beyond seven months from the date of delivery. Campuses may, in their discretion, approve other arrangements for shared leave including concurrent leave and may, as a matter of discretion, extend leave for child care beyond the mandatory seven months. Furthermore, while one parent is absent on leave for child care, campuses continue to have the discretion to approve requests from the other parent for periods of vacation, pursuant to Paragraph 23.2(e) of the 1988-91 Agreement between the State of New York and United University Professions.
Temporary and probationary employees without any permanent status are entitled to leave with full pay and/or without pay as described above. However, these employees are not eligible for leave beyond that date when their employment would otherwise terminate. In general, the State's policy on leave for pregnancy, childbirth and child care shall not be construed to require extension of any employment beyond the time it would otherwise terminate.
In cases of legal adoption under Article 7 of the Domestic Relations Law, leave for child-rearing purposes shall be granted where the adoptive child is required to reside with the adoptive parents for at least six months prior to an order of adoption being made. In such cases, leave for child-rearing purposes shall be granted for six months commencing from the date the adoptive child begins actual full-time residence with the adoptive parents. Additional leave for child-rearing purposes may be granted in the discretion of the Chief Administrative Officer; provided, however, child-rearing leave shall not exceed a period of two years cumulatively.
Paid Family Leave effective January 1, 2018
Note, this benefit only applies to Management Confidential Classified employees
Information for Employees (includes overview, benefits, eligibility, cost and deductions, how to apply for benefits)
Required Forms:
- Bond with a newborn or newly adopted or foster child
- Care for a family member with a serious health condition
- Assist families in connection with a military deployment
Employee Presentation
Notice to Employees
Statement of Rights for Paid Family Leave
Information for Employers
Employees returning from a medical or workers’ compensation leave of absence must follow these procedures:
Sabbatical
Sabbatical leaves are granted under Article XIII, Title E, of the SUNY Policies of the Board of Trustees. Sabbaticals may be granted for planned travel, study, formal education, research, writing, or other experiences of professional value. Faculty having continuing appointments and who have completed at least six (6) consecutive years of service within SUNY are eligible. Such leaves may be granted for one year at half salary or for six months at full salary. Faculty may, with the prior approval of the president, accept fellowships, grants-in-aid, or earned income to assist in accomplishing the purposes of their leaves. Deadlines for application for sabbatical leave are generally in early November of the preceding academic year; exact dates are available in the Academic Affairs Office. For additional information, see DOPS and the Agreement.
Sick, Maternity or Child Care Leave
Title F
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