Contract Corner
Article 11- Sick Leave
Article 11 protects an employee’s right to take time off for sick leave. Sick leave may include illness, injury, and/or medical appointments. Sick leave time can also be taken to support a family member through a medical need. The substantive change that UCPEA made to 11.1 in the new iteration of the contract is a change to the definition of family member. Past contracts have used the term “immediate family” and they have listed parents, grandparents, children, siblings, etc. In the new contract, we’ve eliminated the word “immediate,” so that the language simply reads as “family member.” The list still includes all of the family member titles that the previous contract had, and it adds in “or a person whose close association with the employee shows to be the equivalent to a family relationship.”
The expansion of the language recognizes that there are people in our lives who aren’t tied to us by blood or through a legal process like marriage or adoption; but they are 100% a family member. As the bargaining team worked on this language we reflected on these relationships in our own lives, and thought of an example where one of our members was told that she could not use sick time after the death of her best friend, a close familial relationship that had spanned decades. Article 11 now acknowledges chosen family members as equal to all other family members.
The other substantive change to Article 11 is in 11.3, the section that describes the Sick Leave Bank. The Sick Leave Bank is the bank of donated time that members can use when they run out of their own accrued time during an extended medical leave for themselves or as a caregiver (except that the employee may save up to two weeks of vacation time). Previous iterations of the contract said that the donated time could be given to employees experiencing “very serious” or “catastrophic” illness or injury. While there is subjectivity to these terms, the UCPEA committee tasked with reviewing applications did a great job of getting paid time to many members who needed it.
The bargaining team wanted to take the subjectivity out of the process, and also wanted to make this time available to certain types of leave that had previously been excluded from these categories; specifically, parental leave and leave for chronic illness. UCPEA accomplished that goal by writing contract language that says the leave will be available to employees using a leave entitlement like a federal or state Family Medical Leave (“FMLA”) or SEBAC supplemental leave.
Now someone who has bonding leave for a new child can stay in paid status longer. An employee with chronic health needs using intermittent leave for appointments, therapy, and/or days dealing with symptoms or pain can take care of themselves without worrying about taking time without pay. Because the parties expect more usage of the Sick Leave Bank, there is a limit of 75 days within a rolling two year period. UCPEA believes this expansion will help to take care of more members during medical, parental, and caregiving leaves.
The updated Article 11 is an example of how fellow UCPEA members are supporting their union siblings when they need it most, and they are codifying that support into contract language.