Personnel Policies
Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Policy - 2A2
Effective January 1, 2024, The University established a paid leave for all employee's benefit, as required by Illinois state law (P.A. 102-1143). The Paid Leave for All Workers (PLAW) benefit is up to 40 hours per year. Eligible employees may earn and utilize the paid leave for any reason, in accordance with this Policy.
| Authority: | Paid Leave for All Workers Act, 820 ILCS 192/1 et seq. |
| Applicability: | All employees who previously did not earn up to 40 hours of paid leave (sick leave or vacation) annually are now eligible to earn up to 40 hours of PLAW leave. These employee classifications include some Non-Tenure Track Faculty and Civil Service Extra Help employees. Employee classifications who earn paid leave time of less than 40-hours annually will accrue the remaining time necessary for up to 40-hours of paid leave, to be taken for any reason. |
| Accrual: | Paid leave shall begin to accrue at the commencement of employment or on the Policy's effective date, whichever is later. Paid leave under this Policy shall accrue at the rate of one hour for every 40 hours worked in a work week. If an employee's regular workweek is less than 40 hours, employee paid leave will accrue as a percentage of 40 hours based on their regular workweek. |
Accrual Carryover: Accrued paid leave under this Policy shall carry over annually to the extent not used by the employee. However, employees may not use more than 40 hours of PLAW leave in a 12-month period.
Paid Leave for All Workers (PLAW) Implementation:
- Effective January 1, 2024, eligible employees began to accrue PLAW paid leave. Eligible employees starting after January 1, 2024, begin to accrue at the commencement of their employment.
- For employees to take advantage of PLAW leave, they must have been employed for 90 days following the effective date, January 1, 2024, or 90 days following the start of their employment, whichever is later.
- A 90-day waiting period applies once for any given employee for the duration of their employment (either 01/01/2024 for current employees or upon hire for future employees.)
- Upon successfully completing 90 days of employment, eligible employees may begin to use paid leave time for a minimum of 2 hours at a time, up to a maximum of 40 hours, or five days, whichever is greater, per fiscal year.
- Employees are not required to search for or find a replacement worker to cover the hours during which the employee uses the PLAW benefit.
- While employees cannot be required to find a replacement worker when utilizing PLAW leave, faculty members are required to follow University policy (Policy 1C1) in regards to scheduling alternative activities to meet mandated class meeting time requirements.
- For employees to take advantage of PLAW leave, they must have been employed for 90 days following the effective date, January 1, 2024, or 90 days following the start of their employment, whichever is later.
- Effective March 31, 2024, all eligible employees can begin using their PLAW leave accrual.
- Effective March 31, 2024, all employees that have multiple paid leave banks can begin designating up to 40 hours of leave from their paid leave banks as PLAW time for any reason, in accordance with this Policy.
Note: Leave banks with stipulations (i.e. extended sick leave; temporary leave) may not be used for PLAW leave.
Reporting Procedures:
The use of PLAW leave or the PLAW designation may be requested in writing through the existing absence request form, and used for any reason of an employee's choosing. Employees cannot be required to justify their use of PLAW leave or the PLAW designation.
- For foreseeable leave, employees must provide seven calendar days' notice before the date on which the leave is to begin.
- For unforeseeable leave, employees are required to provide such notice as soon as is practicable after the employee is aware of the necessity of the leave. Employees must communicate their intention to use PLAW leave to cover their absence through the normal absence request and call-in or notification procedures.
- PLAW leave cannot be used retroactively to replace other previously reported paid leave usage. Additionally, PLAW leave cannot be changed to another type of paid leave after PLAW has been processed through the electronic timekeeping system.
- The University cannot deny an employee's request to use PLAW even if the employee's request does not meet foreseeability requirements, except under the limited circumstances outlined below.
Scheduling:
Departments should approve PLAW requests to the greatest extent possible. However, the use of PLAW is subject to operational necessity and may be denied by departments if the absence creates a situation where minimum staffing requirements cannot be fulfilled. Examples of operational necessity include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Situations where operational safety requires a certain number of employees to work during a shift or event-specific operations (e.g., move-in, commencement).
- To ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the campus community (e.g. SIUE PD minimum staffing requirements).
- Whether granting leave during a particular time period would significantly impact University operations (e.g. dining, textbook services). Employees must check with their respective departments for the respective time periods that apply.
Note:
- Each department is required to maintain a record of all denied requests, including the reason for denial and to report this information to the Office of Human Resources. Additionally, the University must provide a copy of the record to every employee denied PLAW leave.
- While considering operational needs, departments must ensure that employees have adequate opportunity to use all PLAW leave over a 12-month period.
Approved by Chancellor March 28, 2024
This policy was issued on March 28, 2024, replacing the December 13, 2023 version.
Document Reference: 2A
Origin: OC 12/11/23; OC 3/28/24
