We are happy to announce that after weeks of requests and frequent meetings with CSU administration, CSU agreed (1) to extend paid administrative leave to protect workers’ jobs through June 30, and (2) to provide CSU workers with the leave provided in the federal stimulus bills (rather than to assert an exemption), and to pay the leave at the full rate of pay rather than the reduced rate provided in the law.
CSU issued a policy memo providing up to an additional 304 hours of paid administrative leave starting May 1 for CSU workers not assigned to work on site and unable to work remotely. These hours will be available through either June 30 or when state/local stay-at-home directives are lifted. This leave aims to ensure that Teamsters members will continue to be paid through the end of the fiscal year if stay-at-home orders continue. Click here to view the CSU memo.
In order to be eligible for this new Non-Telecommuting Workers Leave (NTWL), you must have a time base that allows you to be eligible for standard benefits under the CSU Benefits Eligibility Administrative Guide, which is the same eligibility requirement as the 256 hours of COVID Temporary Paid Administrative Leave (CPAL) provided before. You also must have exhausted all of the 256 hours of paid leave available under the CPAL program. This leave does not replace the leave available under CPAL, leave for those who are 65 or older or have underlying health conditions or the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which is detailed below.
We appreciate that CSU has worked with our Union to resolve issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued to have regular meetings with our leadership. Since the start of these regular meetings, Teamsters 2010 Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz has regularly requested that CSU protect our members’ health and safety while ensuring they continue to be paid for their essential services. We thank CSU for this new guidance and look forward to continuing to work with them to protect our members’ jobs going into the next fiscal year.
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act
The CSU released guidance on implementing the federal government’s Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA) that provides additional paid sick leave and Emergency Family and Medical Leave (EFML) for our members. Under the guidance, up to 80 hours or 2 weeks of paid sick leave are available through the end of the year for those unable to work on site or remotely due to:
- Being under quarantine themselves
- Caring for someone quarantined pursuant to a government order or health care provider’s advice
- Having COVID-19 symptoms and seeking diagnosis
- Caring for a child whose school or childcare provider is not available due to the pandemic.
As for expanded EFML, workers have access to up to an additional 12 weeks of leave (with 10 of those weeks being paid leave) through the end of the year for those with more than 30 calendar days of service who are not able to work on-site or telework due to the reasons cited in No. 4 above. We appreciate that CSU has gone above and beyond the FFCRA requirements and committed to provide our members’ full regular rates of pay for qualifying paid leave under this program.
For more information on eligibility, please review the full guidance and CSU FFCRA application here.