Sick and Safe Leave

In the event of a non-work related illness or injury, Dunwoody provides sick leave benefits for the purpose of providing income protection to all eligible employees. Employees are eligible for sick leave if they work at least eighty (80) hours in the state of Minnesota in a calendar year. 

An eligible employee may use sick leave for the following reasons:

  • the employee’s mental or physical illness, treatment or preventive care;  
  • a family member’s mental or physical illness, treatment or preventive care;
  • absence due to domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking of the employee or a family member;
  • closure of the employee’s workplace due to weather or public emergency or closure of a family member’s school or care facility due to weather or public emergency; and
  • when determined by a health authority or health care professional that the employee or a family member is at risk of infecting others with a communicable disease.

Employees may use accrued sick leave for the following family members:

  • their child, including foster child, adult child, legal ward, child for whom the employee is legal guardian or child to whom the employee stands or stood in loco parentis (in place of a parent);
  • their spouse or registered domestic partner;
  • their sibling, stepsibling or foster sibling;
  • their biological, adoptive or foster parent, stepparent or a person who stood in loco parentis (in place of a parent) when the employee was a minor child;
  • their grandchild, foster grandchild or step-grandchild;
  • their grandparent or step-grandparent;
  • a child of a sibling of the employee;
  • a sibling of the parents of the employee;
  • a child-in-law or sibling-in-law;
  • any of the family members listed in 1 through 9 above of an employee’s spouse or registered domestic partner;
  • any other individual related by blood or whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship; and
  • up to one individual annually designated by the employee.

Sick leave is provided/accrued as follows:

  • Regular full-time employees (those working 40 hours/week): 56 hours of sick leave on the first day of each fiscal year
  • Regular part-time employees with benefits (those working at least 30 hours/week): 48 hours of sick leave on the first day of each fiscal year.
  • Part-time employees (those working less than 30 hours/week): accrue 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked 
  • Adjunct Instructors: 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked on the first day of each semester

In a given day, sick leave can be taken at a minimum of one hour and in increments of 30 minutes. Sick leave may be carried over from year to year, but the balance shall not exceed 80 hours at any given time.

Sick days requested after the exhaustion of available time will be without pay unless the employee is eligible for short-term disability benefits. Requests for unpaid leave will be decided on a case by case basis at management’s discretion.

Employees who are unable to report to work due to illness or injury must notify their direct supervisor before the scheduled start of their workday absent exigent circumstances. The direct supervisor must also be contacted on each additional day of absence except in the case of longer term absences when other arrangements for notice are made by the supervisor. If an employee is absent for five (5) or more consecutive days due to illness or injury, or in the event of hospitalization, written documentations must be provided verifying the illness and certifying the employee fit for duty. Such verification may be requested for other sick leave absences as well and may be required as a condition to receiving sick leave benefits. 

Employees may qualify for short-term disability benefits if absent for more than eight (8) calendar days, subject to the eligibility requirements listed in the short-term disability plan documents. Short-term disability provides eligible employees with 60% of their gross salary for up to 180 days. Each employee is required to use his/her accrued sick and PTO hours in conjunction with the short-term disability benefit not to exceed their normal weekly earnings.

Any leave taken under this provision, that qualifies as leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, will be counted as FMLA leave and charged to an employee’s entitlement of twelve (12) weeks of FMLA leave in a rolling twelve (12) month period.

Dunwoody will not retaliate against an employee for using sick and safe time for protected sick or safe time reasons.  An employee who believes they have experienced retaliation should report their concerns to Human Resources so that Dunwoody can investigate and take responsive action.  An employee may also file a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry or take other legal action.