Short-Term Disability Process Changes
In response to employee feedback, Â鶹´«Ã½ Human Resources is changing the way timesheets are processed for employees receiving short-term disability insurance payments.
Beginning July 1, 2024, employees who wish to supplement their short-term disability payments with paid leaves should complete their timesheet using earnings code 550 (sick leave) for all time out of the office related to their disability. Payroll will then calculate the precise amount of leave that will allow employees with sufficient accrued paid leave to receive 100% of their normal income for that pay period when added together with the short-term disability payments the employee received. Human Resources will then help employees go through the timesheet revision process to align their timesheets with Payroll’s calculations.
Employees who do not wish to supplement their short-term disability insurance payments with Â鶹´«Ã½ paid leaves should continue to complete their timesheets using earnings code 622 (Short-Term Disability - Unpaid) for all time out of the office related to their disability. Earnings code 622 is an unpaid earnings code. This means that employees who choose this option could receive no additional pay beyond their short-term disability benefit payment for pay periods where they code all their hours out of the office to earnings code 622.
Will this change affect retirement benefits?
This change may increase some employees’ reportable hours, having a positive effect on their retirement. However, receiving short-term disability insurance payments at all can negatively affect an employee’s retirement because insurance payments are not considered wages. For retirement purposes, hours assigned to short-term disability earnings codes will be treated the same as leave without pay. More than 10 days of leave without pay taken within one year may affect retirement service credit.
Why are we making this change?
Since Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s Short-Term Disability insurance policy became effective on July 1, 2023, Â鶹´«Ã½ Human Resources has received a lot of feedback from employees, supervisors, and HR Coordinators indicating that the timesheet completion guidelines for employees receiving short-term disability insurance payments were confusing or otherwise not what employees were hoping for.
Although using short-term disability insurance benefits meant employees were able to preserve some of their paid leaves (e.g., sick leave, annual leave, or faculty time off) when dealing with difficulties that left them unable to work, many expressed disappointment because their overall income during these time frames could be reduced due to weekly benefit maximums or offsets against the benefit from income earned by working part-time.
Â鶹´«Ã½ Human Resources listened to this feedback. The prior system was not working for our employees, so we revamped the time entry process to simplify time entry and allow all employees the opportunity to use their additional paid leaves to reach 100% of their usual income while receiving short-term disability insurance payments.
Questions?
Further information regarding Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s short-term disability insurance policy, including full plan details, may be found on Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s Short-Term Disability webpage.
Questions or concerns regarding Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s short-term disability insurance, including how to complete timesheets while receiving disability insurance payments, may be directed to ua-hr-leaves@alaska.edu.
Published in Â鶹´«Ã½ News 6/21/2024.