Vanderbilt University continues to provide all full-time, benefits-eligible staff members who are diagnosed with COVID-19 access to a paid leave bank of up to one week, equivalent to 40 hours of pay.
The bank is available to on-campus and remote workers who have been diagnosed and are symptomatic. Staff who are working remotely, diagnosed and isolating but are asymptomatic and able to perform their work should continue their normal remote work and are ineligible for the COVID-19 Leave Bank.
Staff members eligible for COVID-19 Leave Bank must do the following:
- Notify your leader of your absence and intent to use the COVID-19 Leave Bank.
- Submit documentation: To be approved to use the COVID-19 Leave Bank for purposes other than vaccination, staff must provide documentation supporting their request. Documentation may take the form of a doctor’s note, other similar medical documentation, Occupational Health or PHCCC (Command Center) notification to HR or the employee’s attestation via webform, which automatically routes the attestation to HR. Documentation may be sent to the FMLA team by fax (615-343-4142) or email (fmlaprocessing@vanderbilt.edu).
- Record time: Employees who are eligible for the COVID-19 Leave Bank should record that time as such in Oracle: non-exempt staff will use the COVID-19 Leave absence type to record those hours on their timecard, and exempt staff will use the COVID-19 Leave absence type to record their absence in their “time and absences.” Depending on the reason(s) for and duration of the leave, FMLA may run concurrently with COVID-19 paid leave.
COVID-19 vaccination leave
There is also a COVID-19 vaccination leave policy, which allows employees paid time off to receive a COVID-19 vaccination or to recover from the side effects of the vaccination. It gives staff one day per vaccination, or a maximum of two days.
When possible, requests for time off to receive a COVID-19 vaccination must be made no later than three scheduled workdays before the date of the scheduled vaccination. A leader must review and process the request promptly. If an employee requests time off the same day a vaccination is made available, every effort will be made to allow the employee the opportunity to receive the vaccination.
For more information on health and safety protocols, visit the Health and Wellness website.