University employees who are in the uniformed services, and their spouses, are entitled to employment protections under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).<\/p>\n
University employees who perform voluntary or involuntary duty in the uniformed services, which include the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Public Health Service commissioned corps, as well as the reserve components of each of these services, are covered by USERRA and are entitled to unpaid military leave during a period of service in the uniformed services for up to five years. In addition, certain disaster response work (and authorized training for such work) is considered \u201cservice in the uniformed services.\u201d<\/p>\n
Qualifying employees will not be denied employment, reemployment, promotion, or other benefits of employment because of their in any of the U.S. uniformed services.<\/p>\n
Qualifying employees must provide their manager with advance notice before they are absent for a military leave of absence.<\/p>\n
For campus employees:<\/strong><\/p>\n In Workday, employees should follow the Manage Absence business process<\/a> and select \u201cLOA \u2013 Military Unpaid Leave.\u201d The request will then route for department and HR approval.<\/p>\n Departments should collect military orders to confirm the validity of the request.<\/p>\n Once the leave of absence is approved, \u201cMilitary Unpaid Time Off (hours)\u201d (for staff, student, and time off accruing academic personnel) or \u201cMilitary Unpaid Time Off (days)\u201d (for faculty) should be entered for the duration of the leave of absence.<\/p>\n For medical centers staff:<\/strong><\/p>\n Email medctrfmla@uw.edu<\/a> for assistance.<\/p>\n Time off accruing employees who are called to service and who have used, or are about to use, all of their accrued vacation and paid military duty time off, may be eligible to receive donations of time off from other employees through the Shared Leave Program<\/a>\u00a0or request shared leave from the\u00a0Uniformed Services Shared Leave Pool<\/a>\u00a0administered by the Washington Military Department.<\/p>\n For military leave less than 31 days:<\/strong> Employees do not need to be in pay status to maintain benefit coverage.<\/p>\n For military leave more than 31 days:<\/strong> Employees must remain in pay status at least eight hours per calendar month for the University to continue paying the employer portion of health insurance. To meet this requirement, employees may-use accrued paid time off in eight-hour increments across the months of active duty. For the continuation of benefits, it is encouraged that employees apply paid time off on the first work day of the month. The following types of paid time off may be interspersed:<\/p>\n At the end of an 18 month military leave, or for any military leave beyond 31 days where an employee does not remain in pay status for at least eight hours in a calendar month, the employee will need to “self-pay” benefits for that month. Meaning, they employee will pay both their portion and the University\u2019s portion in order to keep health insurance coverage active.<\/p>\n For more information on benefits continuation or to reinstate any benefits not maintained while on active duty, contact the\u00a0Benefits Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n Employees who return from military duty leave \u00a0are eligible to receive all the rights and benefits that they would have received had they never been absent, such as pay increases, seniority, and vacation accrual rate.<\/p>\n Absences for military duty are considered time worked for determining FMLA eligibility, layoff seniority, and completion of a probationary or trial service period.<\/p>\n Prior to returning to work while on a USERRA covered military duty leave, employees must notify their manager of their intent to return to the University and provide a copy of their discharge documentation. The documentation should include:<\/p>\n The length of the employee\u2019s military leave of absence determines the \u00a0return-to-work notice requirement.<\/p>\nShared leave<\/h5>\n
Benefits continuation while on leave<\/strong><\/h5>\n
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Return to work process<\/h5>\n
Return to work notification requirements<\/h5>\n
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