Category: Benefits

Michigan enacted the Paid Medical Leave Act (PMLA) on December 19, 2018, effective March 29, 2019. The new law requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide paid medical leave for personal or family needs.

For all Benefit Eligible Employees, PMLA has updated the availability for sick leave to include:

•  The employee’s or employee’s family member’s mental or physical illness, injury or health condition, including medical diagnosis, care or treatment and preventative medical care
•  Medical or psychological care for physical or psychological injury or disability resulting from domestic violence or sexual assault, to obtain legal services or participate in related court proceedings
•  Closure of the employee’s primary workplace or child’s school or daycare due to a public health emergency or if the employee or family member has been quarantined

For Short-term, Casual, Seasonal (Temporary) Employees only, PMLA provides a sick leave accrual process. The terms of the temporary employee leave accrual process are:

• Employees will accrue one hour of leave for every 35 hours worked.
• An employee’s accrual is limited to 40 hours of paid leave per calendar year.
• Employees must wait to use the paid leave until 90 days after the start date of employment.
• Employees will be able to carry over up to 40 hours of their accrued sick leave between calendar years.
• A complete break in employment from the University of one day or more will erase any sick leave balance. Upon re-hire, the accrual will start over.

For all Student Employees, PMLA provides sick leave if the student works an average of 25 hours per week or more in total at the University. At the start of the 2020 calendar year, a twelve month look back will be conducted to determine which student employees meet this criteria for sick leave.

Please note, all temporary and student employees who have not been paid for 42 days or more in a job will be automatically terminated.

The updated Sick Leave guidelines are found at: https://www.mtu.edu/hr/current/benefits/time-off/

For additional questions or clarification, please contact Human Resources at 906.487.2280.