Temporary Emergency Leave Provisions

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COVID-19

Dear Colleagues:

First and foremost, I hope you and your families are well and I want to thank you for following the guidelines of our public health experts for preventing COVID-19 illness and its spread.

I also want to thank you for continuing to serve the needs of our students and their families during this unprecedented time. Schools are at the center of the life of our community, and these past few weeks have highlighted just how important our contributions are to the lives of our families. For many of us, however, providing these contributions from our homes can present challenges to our own family lives and responsibilities.

I’d like to update you on new federal legislation that may help. It addresses emergency sick leave and extended family and medical leave. As was shared previously, please work with your supervisor regarding the work expectation for your role. If you are unable to fulfill those expectations, this new legislation may help.

On March 18, the U.S. Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act, which became effective on April 1 until the end of the calendar year. It applies to employees unable to perform their duties either remotely or in their normal work setting while COVID-19 restrictions are in place or because they are ill with COVID-19 or caring for those who are. Please be aware that Temporary Emergency Leave Provisions are subject to change as additional regulatory guidance is provided.

Under the law, affected employees can be eligible for two types of leave:

Emergency Paid Sick Leave – provides up to two weeks of paid leave paid at the employee’s regular rate of pay if an employee is unable to work because they are:

  • Subject to a COVID-19 federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order;
  • Advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine;
  • Experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking a medical diagnosis;
  • Caring for another person who is subject to a quarantine or isolation order or who has been advised to self-quarantine as described above;
  • Caring for one or more of their children whose child care provider is unavailable due to COVID-19 restrictions; or
  • Experiencing any other substantially-similar health condition specified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Part-time employees are eligible for leave for the number of hours they normally are scheduled to work.

Emergency Extended Family and Medical Leave – temporarily expands leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) if an employee who has worked for at least 30 days is not able to work because of the unavailability of child care related to COVID-19.

Under the provisions of the new law:

  • It provides up to 10 weeks of job-protected leave that will be paid at 2/3 your regular rate of pay after you meet a 10-workday waiting period. Leave used for Emergency Extended FMLA will only be paid at 2/3 and will not be supplemented by any accrued leave you may have available.
  • You may meet the waiting period requirement by using Emergency Paid Sick Leave for those 10 workdays.
  • If you have used leave under FMLA in the last 12 months, you may use any remaining time from your 12-week FMLA entitlement for Emergency Extended FMLA. If you have already exhausted your 12 weeks of FMLA, you would not be eligible for Emergency Extended FMLA.

Both Emergency Paid Sick Leave and Emergency Extended FMLA are available in those situations where you may need to work partial days and request leave for the remainder of your daily schedule.

If you are seeking to use Emergency Paid Sick Leave, you must complete an Emergency Paid Sick Leave Certification form, together with documentation you may need to provide, and submit it to your supervisor. If you are seeking to use Emergency Extended FMLA, you will need to provide an Emergency Family and Medical Leave Certification form to the Human Resources Department in conjunction with normal FMLA notification requirements. Both forms contain Instructions on how to submit them to your supervisor or to the Human Resources Department.

Human Resources will be creating communications and training materials for employees, managers and timekeepers to use for the administration of these new leave provisions. These materials will be available within the next few days. If your questions are more immediate, please send them to COVID19@albemarle.org. We appreciate your patience as we work together through this challenging time.

Thank you and please stay safe.

Sincerely,

Clare Keiser

Clare Keiser
Assistant Superintendent
Organizational Development and Human Resource Leadership