Memo: Sick Leave Provisions (March 26)

The following message is sent on behalf of Lindi Frost, Executive Director – Employee & Labour Relations, Allison Matacheskie, Managing Director, Faculty Relations, and Gillian Henderson, Executive Director, Human Resources, UBC Okanagan, to the human resources community of practice at UBC. Please share this information with faculty and staff, including managers and supervisors, as applicable. 

Note: This information in this memo may be out of date. For the most current information about sick leaves, please visit the Managing employees during COVID-19 page.

Responding to COVID-19: Sick Leave Provisions

In response to the current situation, the university has established a temporary approach to providing paid sick leave for the following employees who are self-isolating with COVID-like symptoms.

1. Those who do not have access to sick leave as part of their employment.
2. Those who have access to sick leave as part of their employment but have used up all of their sick leave.

The university has approved the temporary provision of paid sick leave for up to 10 consecutive days within the 14-day self-isolation period. It applies to sick leave taken up to April 30, 2020. This approach will be reassessed at the end of April. For employees who have sick leave provisions as part of their employment but have used up all of their sick leave, any sick leave taken will be deducted from their future sick leave accruals. Please find the process for administering this approach below.

Please encourage all faculty and staff to regularly visit https://covid19.ubc.ca/ for the latest information on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and UBC’s response. Managers and Supervisors can also find up-to-date information online.

Questions? Please contact your HR Advisor.

Process for administering this approach

Following is the process for administering this temporary approach to paid sick leave.

• Provide sick leave pay to both groups of employees in accordance with the outlined eligibility requirements, and in accordance with the amount of sick time allowed as per the guidelines.  This should be paid from the same PG that the employee’s salary is currently paid from. The utilization of future sick leave accruals is tracked and administered locally.

For employees who don’t have sick leave as part of their employment, follow the additional steps below.

• Keep track of these costs in the following two ways:
  1. Transfer via JV the associated costs to the new Operating fund code G0110 (COVID19 Impact) and keep your department ID, as recently outlined by Steve Bow’s message to senior Finance staff in Faculties/Departments. The JVs should be done on a monthly basis; and
  2. Keep track of this locally, because central HR will be reaching out to collect this information in order to assess potential further action beyond the initial 30 day period.

The University will be considering all COVID-related incremental costs, including this, at a future date when in a position to do so.