Issue #1 – Paid Temporary Disability Leave.  The University’s current Policy on the General Faculty guarantees up to 6 months of paid “temporary-disability (sick) leave” for general faculty.  However, the University does not have an established policy or mechanism to fund extended temporary leave (as opposed to normal sick leave) for sponsor-supported employees.  Cases are handled on an ad hoc basis leading to substantial administrative burdens on all parties (the individual disabled faculty/staff, their departments, and Human Resources).  The following points illustrate aspects of the problem:

• In some cases, departments have been required to pay salary and benefits for temporarily disabled, non-working employees through existing grants and contracts.  However, because salary in such cases is not allocated for its intended purpose, the departments’ and University’s ability to meet contractual obligations may be compromised. 

• The Federal Cost Accounting Standards require that costs for temporary disability leave for sponsor-supported employees be distributed proportionately across all funding sources.  However, individual faculty who are supported by multiple grants/contracts are not allowed to “bank” funds from past projects that could be used to meet this requirement. 

• Departments have also been required to pay temporary disability leave for sponsor-supported employees through recovered overhead from grants and contracts.  However, all departments may not be aware of their potential financial liability in this regard or have sufficient resources available.

Although the temporary disability leave costs for sponsor-supported employees University wide are modest, when billed to individual research programs or to individual units, the financial implications can be very serious. The GFC believes that the simplest, most-cost effective, and least disruptive solution to this problem would be to treat the benefit like an insurance policy.  Specifically, we feel that the risk should be spread proportionately over all stake holders by establishing a University-wide, self-sustaining pool to cover the cost of this benefit through a minor (perhaps trivial) tax on overhead recovered from all sponsor-supported grants and contracts.

Resolution:  The GFC requests that the Provost, the Vice President for Research, and Human Resources work with us in establishing a University-wide pool to fund paid temporary disability leave for all eligible sponsor-supported employees.

Benefits for Sponsor-Supported General Faculty and Staff (Primarily Research Faculty and Professional Research Staff)
Issue #2 – Eligibility for Employer Contributions to Health Benefits