UVA is committed to balancing the demands of your workplace, your individual needs, and the needs of your family. The University complies with the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2601 et seq., and Regulations 29 C.F.R Part 825).
Family and Medical Leave (FMLA) is a job-protected leave without pay (or use of your accrued leave with pay) for up to 12 work weeks (26 weeks for qualified Military leave). For Academic, Medical Center, UPG and Wise employees, entitlement is based on a rolling 12 month period.
Reasons specified in the FMLA include:
Birth of a child (to be taken within 12 months of the child’s birth)
Addition to the family through adoption or foster care (to be taken within 12 months of the child’s placement)
Care for a family member (child, spouse, or parent) with a serious health condition
A serious health condition that makes you unable to do your job
Military leave for a qualified exigency or to care for a covered service member’s serious illness or injury. (You may be granted up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a covered military service member who sustained a serious injury or illness if you are the spouse, son, daughter, parent or next of kin.)
Eligible employees for Academic, Medical Center, and Wise employees must have been employed with UVA or the Medical Center for:
At least 12 months within the last 7 years
At least 1,250 hours during the 12 months before the start of leave
Eligible employees include University Physicians Group who have been employed at UPG for both:
At least 12 months within the last 7 years
At least 1,250 hours during the 12 months before the start of leave
How to Apply for Family Medical Leave- Academic Division & Medical Center
All employees at UVA, including the Medical Center, contact our partner UNUM to apply for Family Medical Leave by calling 866.269.0979. Employees may access the UNUM website to provide requested documentation or report intermittent absences. Please note that upon the first visit to the website, you will need to register for an account.
To apply for other types of leave see the HR Paid Leave page. To apply for disability, see the HR Disability page.
The Academic and Medical divisions of UVA measure usage on a "rolling" 12-month period. This time is measured backward from the date an employee uses any FMLA. An employee who uses FMLA earns it back 12 months to the date after they used it.
For example, if an employee took 8 hours of FMLA on July 20, 2020, they earn 8 hours back on July 20, 2021.
To apply for or use Intermittent FMLA, contact UNUM.
If you have an intermittent leave, you must notify UNUM within 7 calendar days each time you need to take intermittent leave. In addition you also need to follow the standard notification process in your department to notify your supervisor.
If UNUM is not notified within 7 days of using intermittent FMLA, your leave under FMLA or State Leave law, where applicable, may be delayed or denied.
Medical Center tracking:
Non-Exempt Medical center team members must use PTO for FMLA only absences.
Exempt Medical center team members are not required to use PTO for a partial day missed but their supervisor or timekeeper should record the LV-FMLA unpaid code for any FMLA approved by UNUM.
Medical Center Supervisors or timekeepers may submit a payroll adjustment form to the payroll department in order to have the FMLA code entered retroactively in Kronos.
Academic staff tracking:
Academic staff may take FMLA as paid or unpaid time off.
Academic staff should record any time off (paid or unpaid) that they wish to use for FMLA in Workday as they would for any other absence and note FMLA is pending. Once FMLA is approved by UNUM your supervisor will be notified and can record the appropriate Intermittent time off code. The Intermittent unpaid code may be used by the supervisor in conjunction with an employee's paid time off entry. This will allow for the FMLA tracking but will not remove any paid time entered by the employee.
Exempt University staff are not required to enter time off for absences of less than four hours per day, please have your supervisor reach out to leave@virginia.edu for assistance with tracking intermittent FMLA.
FMLA and Paid Time Off
FMLA is unpaid, in order to receive pay while on FMLA employees have the following options:
Short Term Disability, if eligible, when an employee is out for their own health condition.
Paid Parental Leave, if eligible, following the birth or placement of a child.
Medical Center team members are required by Medical Center Policy 600 to use PTO while out on FMLA not associated with Short Term Disability or Paid Parental Leave.
For the duration of continuous or intermittent FMLA not concurrent with Short Term Disability or Paid Parental Leve employees or supervisors would enter the appropriate time off into Workday or Kronos.
If approved for Short Term disability or Parental Leave, the pay will be managed via the leave status in Workday by the Leave Team.
University Physicians Group (UPG) Employees
Effective 10/1/2022, UPG will move to the third party vendor, GuardianLife, to administer FMLA and Short Term Disability (STD) claims through the same office.
During this transition:
For FMLA claims currently with Principal, Principal will pass along the last 12 months of historical data, as well as any pending or approved claims already on file beyond 10/1/2022 to GuardianLife.
For Employees on Short Term or Long Term disability, and the disability event is prior to 10/1/22, Principal will continue to handle your disability payments as normal, and work with you through the length of your disability.
Please contact Guardian to submit disability claims that will start after 10/1/2022. Your information will be verified by a leave claims analyst who will answer any questions you may have. You will be notified of the status of your FMLA claim once it has been processed, and a copy of the initial request and decision will be sent to your supervisor.
When absence from work is foreseeable, an employee must provide at least 30 days’ notice before taking leave. When a 30 day notice is not possible, the employee must provide notice as soon as practical and follow normal procedures to notify the supervisor of their absence from work.
If the need for FMLA is due to your own serious health condition, you will work with the same leave administrator for your STD claim, if eligible. Of note:
If the employee’s date of disability is within 2 weeks of the absence initiation/report date, the outreaches will occur within 24 and 48 hours of the date of disability.
If the employee’s date of disability is greater than 2 weeks of the absence initiation/report date, the employee and employer will receive an emailed notification advising of the absence receipt and that review will begin at the date of disability.
To Submit a Claim or check the progression of a submitted claim, go to:
www.GuardianLife.com
Phone: 888-889-2953
You must register first to set up a UserID using UPG’s group number #035294.
FMLA is a job protection entitlement. It does not protect salary. UPG employees on FMLA are required to use accrued PTO to cover the absence while out on FMLA that is not associated with Short Term Disability Pay, or Paid Parental Leave. When PTO is exhausted, an employee on approved FMLA will be placed on leave without pay.
When FMLA is not continuous, but approved on an intermittent basis, the employee must report all FMLA hours within the Workday system as an FMLA Intermittent absence and to GuardianLife.
Please see the UPG Leave of Absence Policy for more detailed information. To access, you must be on a UPG issued computer.
For more information, please see the Short-Term Disability or Paid Parental Leave
section on the UPG Benefits page.
Family and Medical Leave Policies
Detailed descriptions of FMLA Policies by employee type:
UVA_HR