Family and Medical Leave Reporting: Timing Requirement Changes

Two important changes to family and medical leave reporting will go into effect on July 1, 2024:

1. New Claims: 

Effective July 1, 2024, employees will be required to initiate a family and medical leave request with UA’s family and medical leave administrator, Unum, within 30 days of the start of their family and medical leave. 

Employees with family and medical leave events that began before June 1, 2024, must report these events to Unum before July 1, 2024, to have older leave hours approved as family and medical leave. (Employees who have already reported their leave event to Unum do not need to do so again.) 

If a family and medical leave qualifying event occurs while an employee is off contract and the employee needs family and medical leave once back on contract, the employee will be required to request family and medical leave within 30 days of coming back on contract. 

If an employee files for family and medical leave more than 30 days after the start of the leave, all leave taken more than 30 days before the request was made to Unum will be considered unprotected leave (unless there was a good cause for delayed reporting to Unum). For example, if an employee has a family and medical leave event that begins on June 1, but does not request family and medical leave from Unum until July 15, any leave hours taken more than 30 days before July 15 will be considered unprotected. 

2. Intermittent Leave Hours Reporting: 

Beginning July 1, 2024, employees using intermittent family and medical leave must report their intermittent leave hours to UA’s family and medical leave administrator, Unum, within 30 days of the date the leave was taken. 

As a reminder, continuous and reduced-schedule family and medical leave are predictable and consistent. In contrast, intermittent family and medical leave does not follow a set schedule. Hours can be taken when necessary. These intermittent hours must be reported to Unum in order for Unum to track the employee’s entitlement and for these hours to be considered job protected leave. 

Employees who used intermittent family and medical leave hours prior to June 1, 2024, but have not yet reported those hours to Unum, must report these older hours to Unum before July 1, 2024, to have the older hours designated as family and medical leave. 

It is highly recommended that employees report their intermittent leave hours to Unum on a biweekly basis, directly after they complete their UA timesheet.

What is family and medical leave?
Family and medical leave protects an eligible employee's job while they are out of the office for their own serious medical condition, to care for an immediate family member experiencing a serious medical condition, to bond with a new child, or for certain specific reasons related to a family member’s military service. Family and medical leave can be taken continuously (for instance, weeks at a time), by reducing the employee’s regular weekly schedule, or intermittently (in bits and pieces over time).

What is the difference between job protection and pay while an employee is out of the office on family and medical leave?

The job protection that family and medical leave provides an employee is different from whether the employee will receive pay while out of the office. Unum tracks the employee’s job protected leave entitlement and does not have direct access to employee timesheets (which focus on pay). 

When an employee experiences a family and medical leave absence, what do they do?

An employee must always inform both Unum and their supervisor when they will be using family and medical leave. A new family and medical leave request may be made or intermittent family and medical leave hours may be reported via Unum’s website or by calling Unum at 866-779-1054, Monday-Friday | 4:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Alaska Time.

Questions?
Further information regarding family and medical leave can be found on UA’s Family and Medical Leave website. Questions or concerns regarding the family and medical leave process, including initiating a new leave request or reporting intermittent leave hours, may be directed to ua-hr-leaves@alaska.edu.

Published in UA News 6/7/2024 & 6/21/2024.