Family Friendly Policies

UCSB faculty and staff employees are eligible for a number of policies and programs that are deemed family friendly. Following are highlights of those provisions.

All Employees

Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program

This campus program permits salary and benefits continuation for employees who have exhausted all paid leave (including paid leave for disability and workers’ compensation) due to their own serious illness or injury or due to the need to care for a seriously ill member of the employee’s family or household. Subject to the stated eligibility requirements, the employee’s salary and benefits continuation is achieved through donations of accrued vacation hours from the employee’s colleagues.

Emergency Vacation Leave Sharing Program (EVLSP)

Holidays

Employees are eligible for holiday pay for the holidays listed below in accordance with the nature of their appointment. UC provides 13 paid holidays a year:

Housing

The UCSB campus is committed to assisting faculty and staff in finding suitable and affordable housing both on campus and in the community. See the Employee Housing Assistance section of this guide.

Time Off for School Functions

The California Family School Partnership Act provides for time off for employees to participate in school activities such at PTA meetings, parent/teacher conferences, or field trips. The child must be in a licensed day care facility or kindergarten through grade 12 and the employee is the child's parent, guardian, or custodial grandparent. Leave may be for up to eight hours per calendar month, not to exceed 40 hours per year.

An employee wishing to take time off must give reasonable notice to his/her supervisor of the planned absence, and may be requested to provide certification from the child's school. An employee may use vacation and/or compensatory time off. If accrued leave is not available, an employee may use leave without pay.

Work-Incurred Illness and Injury

Extended sick leave is provided if you are unable to work due to a work-incurred injury or illness compensable under the California Workers' Compensation Act and your accrued sick leave is exhausted. If you are off pay status and receiving temporary disability payments under the Workers' Compensation Act you may be granted, at the discretion of the department head, a leave without pay. If eligible, Family and Medical Leave will be granted.

Staff Employees

Leaves of Absence

Paid and unpaid leaves of absence may be granted for a variety of reasons including: pregnancy disability leave, family and medical leave, supplemental family and medical leave, work-incurred disability leave, personal leave, and military leave.

Sick Leave

Sick leave accrual is in proportion to the percentage of time you work;full-time staff earn on 8 hour day each month (up to 12 days maximum per year) with no overall limit. Sick leave is provided to continue the salary of eligible employees who are absent from work because of illness, disability, medical appointments and, on a limited basis, in the event of illness in the family or bereavement.

Vacation

Generous vacation accrual in proportion to the percentage of time you work;for most full-time staff, at least 15 working days per year when you start, with the amount increasing based on years of service to a maximum of 24 days annually.

 

Faculty and Other Academic Employees

Leaves of Absence

The following leaves of absence are available to academic employees. To obtain detailed information regarding the various leaves and eligibility requirements, visit the following web site addresses:

http://www.ucop.edu/acadadv/acadpers/apm/sec5-pdf.html (for UC-wide policies), and
(pdf) http://ap.ucsb.edu/policies.and.procedures/red.binder/red.binder.pdf (See Section 6 for UCSB campus-specific policies.)

Parental Leave; Modified Duties

Academic appointees are eligible for parental leave for purposes of carrying out childbearing and/or child rearing responsibilities. Whenever possible, parental leaves should be requested at least three months in advance.

Sick Leave

As a general rule academic appointees do not accrue sick leave credit with the exception of certain groups listed below and in APM 710-l4. Academic appointees who accrue sick leave shall maintain proper records to show accrual and usage of sick leave credit. In the case of illness of appointees who do not accrue sick leave, leave with pay may be approved by the Dean/Provost.

Leaves in excess of one year require approval of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel.

  1. The following are eligible to accrue sick leave credit provided the appointment is at fifty percent or more time on a fiscal year basis:
    • Professional research series
    • Postgraduate Research series
    • Visiting Postdoctoral
    • Specialist series
    • Librarian series
    • Associate and Assistant University Librarians
    • Continuing Education Specialist
    • Academic Administrators
    • Academic Coordinators

  2. Appointees who accrue sick leave accrue at the rate of one working day per month for full time service, including periods of leave with pay other than terminal vacation. Accrual for part time employees is based on the percent time on pay status during the month.

  3. Use of accrued sick leave is defined in APM 710-20.

  4. As a general rule, an academic appointee who does not accrue sick leave may apply for up to one quarter of leave with pay due to illness. A physician’s statement assessing the prognosis for return to duty may be requested prior to approval of the leave. Should the illness require an extension beyond the initial quarter of leave with pay, a physician's statement must be provided with the request for extension.

  5. In accordance with Family and Medical Leave policies (APM 715) accrued sick leave may also be used to care for an ill child, parent or spouse. Appointees who do not accrue sick leave may request up to one quarter of leave with pay for the care of an ill child, parent, or spouse.

Family and Medical Leave

In accordance with applicable State and Federal law, family and medical leave provides eligible employees with entitlements to leave for up to a total of 12 workweeks in the leave year, continuance of health plan coverage as if on pay status, and reinstatement rights. Eligible academic appointees are entitled to take unpaid leave or to substitute accrued sick leave or accrued vacation for the following reasons:

  1. The appointee’s own serious health condition

  2. To care for the appointee’s child, parent, or spouse with a serious health condition

  3. To care for the appointee’s newborn child or a child newly placed with the appointee for adoption or foster care.

In lieu of using family and medical leave, appointees may be eligible under University policy to take other types of leave to care for other family members, including domestic partners, and other persons residing in the appointee’s household (see APM Sections 710-20, 710-24, 760-27, and 760-28).

Childbearing Leave (APM 760)

  1. An academic appointee who accrues sick leave shall be granted childbearing leave with full pay to the extent of her sick leave credit.

  2. An academic appointee who does not accrue sick leave and who has served in her title or any faculty title for at least one year will receive full pay for up to 6 weeks during the period of time she is unable to assume her normal University obligations due to the birth of a child.

  3. An academic appointee who does not accrue sick leave and who has served in her title for less than one year will receive full pay for approximately the period which would be accrued during the appointment in accordance with the accrual rates in APM 710-l8. If additional time is needed, leave without pay will be granted for the necessary period. However, members of the Academic Senate will be covered by (B above, regardless of length of service.

  4. The request for Childbearing Leave shall include a statement of the projected delivery date.

Leaves and the Eight Year Probationary Period.

  1. Childbearing , Parental Leave or a combination of both, which is equal to or exceeds one quarter and which is not greater than one year, whether with or without salary, is automatically excluded from service toward the eight-year period. The faculty member must inform the Department Chair in writing before, during, or within one quarter after the leave, if he/she wishes the time to be included as service toward the eight-year period. It should be noted that this is considered time excluded from the tenure clock and the faculty member should not be expected to produce any additional materials/ publications because of this exclusion. Any materials/publications that are produced, however, should be considered in the next appropriate review.

  2. A period of Active Service-Modified Duties is included as service toward the eight-year probationary period or toward other service limits described in APM 133.

  3. Upon request of a faculty member who has substantial responsibility for the care of an infant or newly adopted child under age five, an extension of the probationary period of up to one year may be granted by the Chancellor. The request for an extension must include a written statement by the faculty member certifying that he/she has substantial responsibility.

    Requests for such extension must be made within two years of a birth or adoption, and may not be made after the tenure review has begun. There is a limit of two such extensions during the probationary period to provide for birth or adoption.

  4. With the exception of Childbearing or Parental Leave, periods of leave, either with or without salary, are included as service toward the eight-year period. Exception may be granted only if requested in conjunction with the original leave request, or in the case of sick leave, within one quarter or semester after the leave is taken. The Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel, after consultation with the Committee on Academic Personnel, may determine that the activity undertaken during the course of the leave is substantially unrelated to the individual's academic career.

  5. For purposes of review for advancement or promotion accomplishments produced during the leave period will be considered as part of the total record, but the period of extension shall be excluded when evaluating the rate of research or teaching performance.

Vacation

  1. See APM 730 for conditions governing accrual, use, and record-keeping.

  2. Fiscal-year non-student academic appointees who have been appointed for six months or more accrue vacation credit at the rate of two working days a month for full-time service. Graduate Student Researcher must be appointed for 12 consecutive months or more at 50% time or more to accrue vacation.

  3. Appointees must be employed at least 50% time for a period of at least six months in order to be eligible to accrue vacation credit. If the individual holds two appointments (staff or academic), each for at least six months, the percent of employment is combined to determine eligibility for vacation accrual.

Other Leaves

See the Academic Personnel Manual for other leaves applicable to academic personnel, including sabbatical leaves. A description of these policies may be found on-line at: http://www.ucop.edu/acadadv/acadpers/apm/sec5-pdf.html

For more information, please the new University of California web site which has been designed to provide summaries of these family friendly policies and programs for faculty and other academic appointees.
http://www.ucop.edu/acadadv/family/welcome.html

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Last Modified Mar 19, 2009