For Our Employees

To qualify to use university-accrued sick leave in these circumstances:

• The employee must be unable to work due to physical illness or is seeking medical diagnosis and care.
• The employee must need to provide care for a family member as defined in RCW 49.46.210 who is experiencing physical illness or who needs medical care.
• The university is closed by order of a public official for any health-related reason.
• The employee’s child’s school or place of care has been closed for any health-related reason.

To qualify to use university-accrued sick leave in these circumstances:

• The employee is unable to work due to physical illness or when the employee is seeking medical diagnosis and care;
• To allow the employee to provide care for a family member as defined in RCW 49.46.210 who is experiencing physical illness or who needs medical care;
• Until the expiration of the governor’s proclamation 20-25, when the employee is unable to work because their supervisor has not identified them as performing essential work and has also determined they are unable to work remotely or telework; or,
• When the university is closed by order of a public official for any health-related reason or when an employee’s child’s school or place of care has been closed for such a reason.

Yes. Shared leave is now available if an employee, a relative or household member is isolated or quarantined as recommended, requested, or ordered by a public health official or health care provider as a result of suspended or confirmed infection with or exposure to COVID-19.

You should first explore with your supervisor whether telework is an option. If you are unable to work because your child’s school or daycare is closed, you may use available accrued sick leave, COVID-19 sick leave, COVID-19 FMLA, vacation leave, personal holiday, compensatory leave, or leave without pay.

The Department of Labor and Industries administers workers’ compensation claims in the State of Washington. Information about the coronavirus and workers’ compensation.

These new leave options are available beginning April 1, 2020.

Yes. Beginning April 1, 2020, EWU is offering up to two weeks of paid sick leave for employees who are unable to work or telework because:

• The employee is subject to a federal, state, or local isolation or quarantine order due to COVID-19;
• A health care provider has advised the employee to self-quarantine due to COVID-19 concerns;
• The employee is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking medical diagnosis;
• The employee is caring for an individual who is subject to federal, state, or local isolation or quarantine order due to COVID-19 or has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19 concerns;
• The employee needs to care for a minor child because the child’s school or place of care has closed or the child care provider for the minor child is unavailable due to COVID-19; or,
• The employee is experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.

This is in addition to accrued sick leave. Employees must contact HR to request COVID-19 sick leave. More information is contained in EWU Policy 403-06 (Pandemic Illness Leave).

The use of leave is governed by both Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) and Policy, so the use of leave varies on your employment status.

Classified, PSE, and Unrepresented Exempt Staff may use accrued sick leave or available vacation if:

• The employee or qualified family member contracts the coronavirus.
• The Spokane Regional Health District or other public official quarantines an employee following exposure to the coronavirus.
• The employee’s child’s school or place of care has been closed by a public health official due to the coronavirus.
• The university is closed by order of a public official due to the coronavirus.
• Until the expiration of the Governor’s Proclamation 20-25, when the employee is unable to work because their supervisor has not identified them as falling within one of the exceptions to the Governor’s order and has also determined they are unable to work remotely or telework.

Temporary employees may use accrued sick leave for the purposes described above.

Faculty

Pursuant to Article 11 of the UFE/EWU CBA:

All faculty, including quarterly faculty, are authorized to take up to two weeks of paid sick leave:

• If the faculty member experiences a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; to accommodate the employee’s need for medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; or an employee’s need for preventive medical care.
• If the faculty member needs to provide care for a family member with a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; care of a family member who needs medical diagnosis, care, treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; or care for a family member who needs preventive medical care.
• If the university is closed by order of a public health official for any health-related reason, or when an employee’s child’s school or place of care has been closed for such a reason.

Probationary, tenured and special faculty who contract the coronavirus may be eligible for an additional 2 weeks of short term disability leave if approved by their dean. Faculty may also be eligible for federal COVID-19 sick leave and COVID-19 FMLA leave.

Additionally, if as a result of contracting the coronavirus, faculty qualify for disability leave, they may be eligible for additional leave. Tenured faculty are eligible for up to 15 weeks; senior lecturers, senior library associate’s, and probationary faculty may receive up to 12 work weeks. The amount of time that lecturers, library associates, and faculty in residence would be eligible would vary depending on the length of time they have worked at EWU.

Yes. Beginning April 1, 2020, EWU is offering up to 12 weeks of FMLA leave for employees who are unable to telecommute and need to care for a minor child whose school or child care is closed due to COVID-19. The first two weeks of the COVID-19 FMLA leave is unpaid. Employees may choose to substitute other paid leave, including federal COVID-19 sick leave, for the first two weeks. For the remaining ten weeks, employees will be paid at a rate of 2/3 of the employee’s regular rate of pay except that the amount of leave paid shall not exceed $200 per day or $10,000 in the aggregate. More information about this leave is contained in EWU Policy 403-06 (Pandemic Illness Leave).

EWU encourages employees to care for the health and safety of themselves and others. If you are concerned about possible exposure, you may quarantine yourself. If you choose to quarantine yourself, you should first explore with your supervisor whether or not teleworking is an option. If teleworking is not an option, you will be able to use:

Classified Employees:

• Vacation Leave
• Personal Holiday
• Personal Leave Day
• Accrued Compensatory Time
• Leave Without Pay for up to 14 days

Exempt Employees Eligible for Overtime:

• Vacation Leave
• Personal Holiday
• Accrued Compensatory Time
• Leave Without Pay for up to 14 days

Exempt Employees Not Eligible for Overtime:

• Vacation Leave
• Personal Holiday
• Leave Without Pay for up to 14 days

Librarians:

• Vacation Leave
• Leave Without Pay for up to 14 days

Faculty:

• Work with your department chair on alternative work options

Please refer to the appropriate Collective Bargaining Agreement and/or University Policy for additional information.  You may also contact Human Resources with any additional questions.

Federal COVID-19 paid sick leave and federal COVID-19 FMLA are only available upon request. To request these types of leave, you must first fill out a form documenting the reason for the leave. This form is available on the HR website.

After completing the form, you should email it to Human Resources at hr@ewu.edu.   HR and Payroll are in the process of working to update the timesheet forms so that you will also be able to report approved COVID-19 sick and FMLA leave on your timesheets once the updates are completed.

It depends. If you request to use federal COVID-19 paid sick leave for any of the following reasons, you must continue to take paid sick leave each day until you either (1) use the full amount of paid sick leave available or (2) no longer have a qualifying reason for taking paid sick leave:

• You are subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
• You have been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19;
• You are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis;
• You are caring for an individual who either is subject to a quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19 or has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19; or,
• You are experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

This limitation on the use of leave is required by the Department of Labor. The limit is imposed because if you are sick or possibly sick with COVID-19, or caring for an individual who is sick or possibly sick with COVID-19, the intent of the federal law is to provide such paid sick leave as necessary to keep you from spreading the virus to others. If you no longer have a qualifying reason for taking paid sick leave before you exhaust your paid sick leave, you may take any remaining paid sick leave at a later time, until December 31, 2020, if another qualifying reason occurs.

If, however, you are taking federal COVID-19 paid sick leave to care for a child whose school or place of care is closed, or whose child care provider is unavailable because of COVID-19 related reasons, you may take federal COVID-19 paid sick leave intermittently. For example, if your child is at home because his/her school or place of care is closed, you may take paid sick leave on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to care for your child, but work at your normal worksite on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

It depends on whether or not you are teleworking or physically working on campus.

Teleworking:

If you are teleworking and unable to work for a portion of time due to one of the qualifying reasons for federal COVID-19 paid sick leave (such as caring for a child whose school is closed), you can use federal COVID-19 sick leave or FMLA intermittently with paid teleworking time. You must communicate to your supervisor when you are working and when you are not able to work.

Working physically on campus:

If you are physically working on campus and unable to telework, federal COVID-19 paid sick leave must be taken in full-day increments. If you are taking the leave because you are subject to a quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19, have been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine, are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, or are caring for an individual who is subject to quarantine, you must continue to take the federal COVID-19 paid sick leave until you have used the full amount available or you no longer have a qualifying reason for taking the sick leave. If you are caring for a child whose school or child care is closed, however, you may use the federal COVID-19 paid sick leave intermittently.

No. If your supervisor reduced your work hours because there was not work for you to perform, you may not use paid sick leave or COVID-19 FMLA for the hours you are no longer scheduled to work. Per the Department of Labor, this is because you are not prevented from working those hours due to a COVID-19 qualifying reason, even if the reduction in hours was somehow related to COVID-19.

No. You may not supplement this paid leave with accrued leave.