Leaves of Absence

FMLA allows eligible faculty and staff to take unpaid, job-protected leave for the birth or adoption of a child, caring for a family member (spouse, child or parent) with a serious mental or physical health condition, the employee's own serious health condition, and certain military-related events.  Leave may be taken all at once or may be taken intermittently. Group health benefits will be maintained during the leave, provided the employee continues to pay their employee contributions.  When your leave ends, you can return to the same or equivalent position.

Up to 12 weeks of unpaid FMLA leave may be taken in a 12-month period. Certain military family leaves may extend up to 26 weeks in a single 12-month period to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness or attend to certain administrative or supportive tasks required when a spouse, child, or parent is on covered active duty. FMLA is available to RPI faculty and staff who have been employed for at least 12 months and who have worked a minimum of 1,250 hours in the past 12 months. 

For more information, please refer to HR Policy Section 1300.6 FMLA Leave of Absence.

NYS PFL provides staff (non-faculty) with job-protected, paid leave to bond with a newly born, adopted, or fostered child within the first 12 months, or to care for a family member – such as a spouse, domestic partner, child/stepchild, or anyone whom they have legal custody – with a serious health condition.  This policy also applies to a staff member’s parent/stepparent, parent-in-law, grandparent, grandchild or sibling.  This benefit provides 67% of wages up to the NYS maximum weekly benefit. Staff may use PTO to supplement the portion of their wages not covered by this benefit.

Staff who work a regular schedule of 20 or more hours per week are eligible after 26 consecutive weeks of employment.  Staff who work a regular schedule of less than 20 hours per week are eligible after working 175 days, which do not need to be consecutive. Staff with irregular schedules should look at their average schedule to determine if they work, on average, fewer than 20 hours per week.

New York Paid Family Leave is insurance that is funded by employees through payroll deductions from employees’ after-tax wages. Each year, the Department of Financial Services sets the employee contribution rate to match the cost of coverage. 

For more information, please refer to HR Policy Section 1300.5 Leave of Absence.

Short-term disability benefits allow eligible staff (non-faculty) to receive partial pay continuation when disabled by an off-the-job injury or illness that results in being out of work for a continuous period of time. There is a 7-day waiting period for which no benefits are paid; benefit payments begin on the eighth consecutive day of disability.  As a substitute for the New York State $170/week short-term disability benefit, RPI will pay 50% of a staff member’s pay up to 4 hours per workday while on an approved STD leave.

Staff may use Paid Time Off (PTO) to receive pay during the waiting period. Thereafter, staff may use Reserved Time Off (RTO), if applicable, to supplement the four hours per day of STD pay from RPI.  Once RTO is exhausted, then PTO can be used, if available, to supplement the RPI STD payments until PTO is exhausted.

For more information, please refer to HR Policy Section 1300.2 Paid Time Off for Sick Leave.

Long-Term Disability (LTD) provides income that would otherwise be lost when faculty or staff are unable to work due to an extended period of disability. Faculty and staff are eligible for Long-Term Disability if they are unable to work after an initial disability of 90 continuous days. LTD coverage replaces 60% of the employee’s monthly income (up to a maximum monthly benefit of $5,000) to age 65 (or later, depending on when the disability begins). The 60% replacement income will be offset by any income the employee receives from other sources, such as Social Security (disability) or Workers’ Compensation. Rensselaer pays 100% of the cost of coverage for any regular full-time faculty or staff member. 

RPI faculty and staff may purchase additional insurance at their time of eligibility, or during RPI’s annual Open Enrollment period. Participants may buy additional coverage to increase their benefit to 66 2/3% of their basic monthly earnings, to a maximum benefit of $7,500.

Faculty and staff who are disabled and expect the disability to continue for more than 90 days must apply for long-term disability through RPI’s disability insurance carrier.

For more detailed information, please refer to the Summary Plan Description (pdf).

Faculty and staff receiving pregnancy-related healthcare services are entitled to 20 hours of Paid Prenatal Leave per year.  This leave may not be used for healthcare appointments after pregnancy.  Further, this leave is available only to the pregnant person receiving healthcare services; a spouse, partner, or other support person attending prenatal appointments with a pregnant person is not able to use Paid Prenatal Leave for these appointments.  This leave is available in addition to other PTO and leave benefits.  An employee may decide whether they wish to use PPL, PTO or another applicable leave.

To use Paid Prenatal Leave, employees must submit a request for the needed time off to attend a pregnancy-related health appointment to their supervisor following normal departmental or unit protocols indicating that they will use “PPL” (rather than “PTO”) to cover the time.  Employees must fill out this Paid Prenatal Leave request form and submit a ticket through Zendesk to request that Paid Prenatal Leave hours be added to their leave bank.

For more information, please refer to HR Policy Section 1300.8 Paid Prenatal Leave or the Fact Sheet for Employees. 

RPI’s Military Leave of Absence Policy guarantees re-employment rights to current faculty and staff in accordance with applicable laws and provides differential compensation for the difference between military pay and regular RPI pay for up to eight weeks for RPI faculty and staff who are involuntarily called into service.

For more information, please refer to HR Policy Section 1300.5 Military Leave of Absence.

In the case of a death in the immediate family, faculty and staff will be eligible to receive a maximum of five (5) days off, not necessarily in succession, with pay for bereavement. Immediate family is defined as an employee’s spouse, domestic partner, parent, child, brother, sister, mother-in-law, father-in-law, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, grandparent, grandparent-in-law, grandchild, or another individual living in the employee’s residence.

In the case of a death of another relative who is not immediate family, employees will be allowed one (1) day off with pay.

Faculty, staff and supervisors may contact the Division of Human Resources with any questions about this policy; however, no forms need to be completed or approved to utilize this leave.

For more information, please refer to HR Policy Section 1300.7 Bereavement Leave.

Employees who are summoned to jury duty will be granted leave to complete their service. The employee must provide their supervisor with a copy of the jury duty summons as soon as practicable prior to the date they are to appear. The employee must obtain from the court a statement of the date(s) and time(s) of service and present this report to the appropriate supervisor upon return to work.

Employees will continue to receive their regular pay uninterrupted for up to 8 weeks of jury service per calendar year. Employees who expect to be required to serve in excess of 8 weeks of jury duty should contact the Division of Human Resources.

For more information, please refer to HR Policy Section 1300.5 Jury Duty Leave of Absence

Employees who work and reside outside of New York State and are requesting information about a leave of absence should contact the Division of Human Resources by submitting a Zendesk ticket.