Family & Medical Leave Act

Family & Medical Leave Act

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 include faculty, professional research staff, classified salaried employees, University staff, Medical Center team members, salaried research assistants, and wage employees who have been employed with a UVA agency 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

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

All employees at UVA and the Medical Center (except UPG, see below), contact our partner firm UNUM via their website to apply for Family Medical Leave or call UNUM at 866-269-0979. Please note for your first visit to the website you will need to register an account. 

For more information about the UNUM partnership, see the HR UNUM webpage.

To apply for other types of leave such as personal leave, faculty leaves, etc., see the HR Paid Leave page. To apply for disability, see the HR Disability page. 

  • Measuring FML on a rolling 12-month period

    Beginning January 1, 2020, UVA will change the 12-month measuring period for FML from a leave year to a 12-month rolling period.

    A "rolling" 12-month period is measured backward from the date an employee uses any FML leave. For example: If an employee takes 4 weeks of FML in July of 2020, she has an additional 8 weeks left to use until July of 2021. 

    An employee who uses FML earns it back 12 months to the date after they used it. For example, she took 8 hours of FML on July 20, 2020, she earns 8 hours back on July 20, 2021.
     
    The Medical Center has always been on a 12-month rolling period so there are no changes for this population.

FMLA and Paid Time Off

Following FMLA guidelines, UVA Academic Division employees and Medical Center team members are not required to use Paid Time Off (PTO) while out on Short Term Disability (STD). 

Beginning January 27, all Medical Center team members desiring to use available PTO while out for the duration of their STD period will need to email leave@virginia.edu to indicate their preference, as PTO will no longer automatically be entered on your behalf.

University Physicians Group (UPG) Employees

UPG uses a third party vendor, Principal Absence Management to administer FMLA. Please contact Principal Absence Management to submit your claim. Your information will be verified by a Benefit Specialist who will initiate the Family Medical Leave process and answer any questions you may have. You will be notified of the status of your FMLA claim once it has been processed. If the need for FMLA is due to your own serious health condition, the FMLA office will initiate the claim with the STD department. Please see the Family and Medical Leave Act policy for more detailed information. 

Principal Absence Management
www.principal.absencemgmt.com
Phone: 1-877-734-3652
Fax: 877-309-0218

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. When PTO is exhausted, an employee on approved FMLA will be placed on leave without pay. When the absence is an approved short-term disability, STD benefits provide 70% income replacement. For more information, please see the Short-term Disability section on the UPG Benefits page.

Family and Medical Leave Policies

Detailed descriptions of FMLA Policies by employee type: