California State University, Los Angeles has a variety of paid and unpaid leaves of absence for employees. If you need to take a leave of absence and have additional questions, please contact the Benefits Office at extension x3651.
Note: Employees should read the following information in conjunction with their Collective Bargaining Agreement language. Contact the Benefits Office with any questions.
Personnel
Leave Requests Procedures
An employee should provide at least a 30-day notice to the campus before commencement of any paid or unpaid leave; however, if the leave must begin in less than 30 days, the employee must provide as much notice as possible. An employee should complete a Leave of Absence Request Form. After all department signatures are acquired, the form is submitted to Human Resources Management for approval. Employees are advised to meet with Benefits prior to taking a medical/disability leave, and physician certification of disability is required.
- Leave of Absence Request Form (DOC) – used to request a leave of absence.
- CFRA Medical Certification Form (PDF) - used to obtain medical certification from health care provider
Employees are entitled to take Family and Medical Leave if they have been employed for at least 12 months in the 12 months preceding the leave. FML is provided to employees in accordance with state and federal laws, which grant up to 12 weeks of leave during a 12-month period to care for themselves, children, spouses, or parents with a serious medical condition. Medical certification is required.
FML runs concurrently with all paid leaves used during the FML period. FML ensures that, if an employee happens to not have enough paid leave time to cover the FML absence, the employer continues to pay the benefits premiums for the FML period. Additionally, FML entitles the employee to reinstatement to the same or comparable position with equivalent benefits, pay and conditions of employment upon the employee’s return to work at the end of the FML period.
Non-industrial Disability Insurance (NDI) is a wage continuation program paid for by the state. There are no employee contributions, enrollment fees or medical examinations required in order to be eligible. NDI provides up to 26 weeks of benefits to eligible employees who are unable to work due to a non-work-related illness or injury including pregnancy. This plan is in lieu of State Disability Insurance (SDI) benefit that is also administered through the Employment Development Department.
Before applying for NDI benefits, eligible employees should first apply for and receive an approved leave of absence. To apply for NDI, employees must contact the Benefits Office.
Employee must be an active CalPERS or CalSTRS member in compensated employment, and:
- A full-time permanent or probationary CSU employee, or
- A part-time or hourly employee with at least the equivalent of six months of compensated pay of service in the 18 months immediately preceding the pay period in which the disability begins, or
- Appointed half time or more in a salaried position for one year of service or one academic year or more.
Before NDI payments begin, the employee must first exhaust all accrued sick leave credits. If any vacation time is used, all vacation accrued must be exhausted before NDI benefits can be paid. While on NDI employees will not receive PERS service credit, and no retirement contributions will be deducted from NDI benefits. Additionally employees will not accrue sick or vacation leave.
The Employment Development Department determines the period of eligibility and authorizes claims. Once the Payroll Department receives authorization from the Benefits Office, the request for payment is made to the State Controller. Payment is then prepared on a monthly basis through the Payroll Office and distributed by the employee’s department.
Voluntary deductions for employee benefits plans including health/dental/vision insurance, credit union, parking fees, etc. will be automatically deducted from the NDI benefits. However, an employee may cancel voluntary deductions.
Any CSU employee who accrues vacation or sick leave credits may voluntarily donate either of those credits (refer to the applicable Collective Bargaining Agreement for the maximum hours you can donate) to any other CSU employee on the same campus. The recipient employee must have exhausted all accrued leave credits, i.e., sick leave, vacation and CTO due to a catastrophic illness or injury. For further information, please contact the Benefits Office.
Paid maternity/paternity/adoption leave benefits are paid to certain employee groups, subject to restrictions. This leave runs concurrently with Family and Medical Leave.
California Pregnancy Disability Leave (CPDL)
This provides a female employee with up to four months of leave if the employee is disabled due to pregnancy. This is a separate entitlement from the CSU FML entitlement and is exhausted prior to employee’s being placed on CSU FML.
Pregnancy Disability Leave Fact Sheet
Your Rights and Obligation as a Pregnant Employee
Education Code 89519 Maternity Leave (ECML)
This is a leave of absence without pay for the purposes of pregnancy, childbirth or the recovery there from of a female employee as determined by the employee, but not to exceed one year. ECML tracks with CPDL and FML so, for a normal pregnancy, the female employee would be out for six weeks of CPDL and up to 12 weeks of FML for a total of 4 ½ months of leave which meets the legal requirements under these three leave provisions. The maximum leave of absence (combining unpaid leave and utilization of leave credits) for permanent employees subject to CPDL, CSU FML, and ECML is one year.
Bereavement leave is granted upon the death of an immediate family member or a “significantly close relative” as defined by University Policy and the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Refer to the collective bargaining agreement for the number of bereavement days allowed.
Employees are granted time to serve on jury duty. Employees will receive full salary while absent to perform jury duty provided the University is reimbursed for monies employees receive for serving as jurors. (Unlimited days allowed).
Emergency, temporary and indefinite military leaves are provided in compliance with federal and state regulations and collective bargaining provisions.
If a voter does not have sufficient time outside of working hours to vote at a statewide election, the voter may, without loss of pay, take off enough working time which when added to the voting time available outside of working hours will enable the voter to vote. No more than two hours of the time taken off for voting shall be without loss of pay.
A full or partial leave of absence without pay may be granted to eligible employees. Formal leaves of absence without pay are requested of the appropriate administrator in writing by the employee and may be granted for satisfactory reasons. (Forms for this purpose may be obtained in Human Resources.) Leaves of absence provide two primary protections for employees:
- They guarantee employees the right to return to the same classification without loss of benefits.
- They protect coverage on group insurance plans. Most group insurance plans may be continued while an employee is on an approved leave of absence. Direct payment of premiums must be made by the employee in order to continue coverage. Arrangement for these payments may be made in Human Resources.