As a core leader, your obligation to caregivers becomes especially critical
when they are absent. Here are the key things you should know.
Leave of absence
Sedgwick is the third-party administrator used to manage leaves of absence.
They ensure our leaves are handled within federal and state guidelines,
as well as company policy and/or collective bargaining agreements. The
most widely known leave-related law is the Family and Medical Leave Act
or FMLA. The FMLA allows caregivers to balance their work and family life
by taking a maximum of 12 work weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave within
a given 12-month period. It can be taken to care for one’s own health
condition or to care for a family member. Besides FMLA, Sedgwick manages
many other leaves including state leaves (like domestic violence or pregnancy
disability leave), military leave, short-term disability, medical leaves,
personal leaves, etc. Leaves can be continuous or intermittent. Each leave
has specific rules on how the time can be taken and whether or not core
leader approval is required. For leaves applicable to your team, please
view the leave policy by selecting your work location from the HR
Policy Resource Library.
Roles and Responsibilities
Sedgwick:
Administers leave and non-work-related disability cases (for work-related
disabilities, see the Workplace Injuries articles under Resources below)
Tracks protected absences according to leave laws, policy, and collective
bargaining agreement
Supports the return-to-work process
Sedgwick does not:
Manage or terminate caregivers
Administer group health benefits
Administer state leave programs (CA SDI, WA PFML)
Administer incidental absences including bereavement, jury duty, paid time
off (PTO), vacation, incidental sick, etc.
Requesting a leave
Absences lasting more than three days and intermittent absences for the
same issue require a leave of absence. If the need for the leave is scheduled
(e.g., surgery or birth), it is always best for the caregiver to request
a leave before the first day of absence.
A caregiver has up to 20 days to submit a completed certification form
to Sedgwick. Within two business days of receiving the certification,
Sedgwick will make an approval/denial determination and notify the caregiver
and core leader. This means the caregiver could be absent for up to three
weeks before Sedgwick has the information needed to make a decision regarding
the leave case.
Direct caregivers requesting a leave of absence to:
Call Sedgwick -or-
Log into Sedgwick
To verify that the leave has been reported to Sedgwick, you can:
Review the new claim email notification from Sedgwick-Core leaders are
responsible for approving or denying requests for personal or educational
leaves by responding to the email from Sedgwick.
Review the weekly summary report emailed from Sedgwick
Note: Caregivers working with a state disability insurance (SDI) and/or paid
family leave (PPL) such as CA or WA are required to apply for benefits
through the state for their own personal health condition and paid family
leave. Please direct your caregivers to the appropriate state agency noted below.
Washington: Employment Development Department (EDD) at 833-717-2273 or visit
paidleave.wa.gov
While on leave
Monitor the leave – time reported by the caregiver to you should
match what is reported to Sedgwick.
Sedgwick will manage the leave through the return to work, leave exhaustion
or denial.
Maintain regular contact with the caregiver; you may want to schedule regular
check-ins to see how the caregiver is doing, based on the severity of
the disability and expected return-to-work date.
Respond timely to any requests or questions from Sedgwick. These requests
will indicate "Action Required" in the subject line.
Review and approve timecards to ensure caregiver is paid according to policy
or as instructed by Sedgwick when provided.
Sedgwick will send pay information directly to Kronos for all paid leaves
(i.e. STD, pregnancy/maternity, paid parental leave) except personal,
military or educational leaves. When instructed by Sedgwick, Core leaders
are responsible for coding PTO hours based on current policy (e.g., some
policies may require PTO to be applied while others may give the caregiver
a choice).
Returning to work
Action: Develop a return-to-work plan
Contact the caregiver to confirm the return date
Remind the caregiver to submit the medical return-to-work release to Sedgwick
by faxing it to 866-315-0607, or by emailing it to:
provleaveforms@sedgwicksir.com
Sedgwick will send an email confirmation for a release to return to work
Once Sedgwick receives confirmation, the return-to-work date will be entered
in their system. The HR system will be updated to show the caregiver’s
status as Active the following business day.
Action: Respond to Sedgwick’s email about accommodating restrictions –
discuss with your HR and caregiver.
Under the law, employers and supervisors/managers need to reasonably accommodate
caregivers’ disabilities. Individual supervisors/managers should
educate themselves on this important topic.
Action: Confirm the actual return-to-work date as quickly as possible to ensure
systems are updated appropriately by responding to Sedgwick's return-to-work
confirmation email or by calling Sedgwick directly. Contact your HR for
questions about employment/performance issues.
If the caregiver's disability extends beyond 26 weeks, he or she may qualify
for Long-Term Disability (LTD) benefits. Sedgwick will automatically refer
the caregiver’s leave information to the LTD carrier, NY Life (formerly
Cigna), for review and processing. NY Life will reach out to caregivers
approaching the 26-week wait period to discuss this benefit in detail.
For more information, the caregiver can also contact NY Life directly.
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