Earned Sick Leave - Human Resources

An employee may use time for any of the following reasons:

• The employee’s or the employee’s family member’s mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of the employee’s mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; or preventative medical care for the employee.
• If the employee or the employee’s family member is a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault, for medical care or psychological or other counseling for physical or psychological injury or disability; to obtain services from a victim services organization; to relocate due to domestic violence or sexual assault; to obtain legal services; or to participate in any civil or criminal proceedings related to or resulting from the domestic violence or sexual assault.
• For meetings at a child’s school or place of care related to the child’s health or disability, or the effects of domestic violence or sexual assault on the child; or
• For closure of the employee’s place of business by order of a public official due to a public health emergency; for an employee’s need to care for a child whose school or place of care has been closed by order of a public official due to a public health emergency; or when it has been determined by the health authorities having jurisdiction or by a health care provider that the employee’s or employee’s family member’s presence in the community would jeopardize the health of others because of the employee’s or family member’s exposure to a communicable disease.

• Biological, adopted or foster child, stepchild or legal ward, or a child to whom the employee stands in loco parentis
• Biological parent, foster parent, stepparent, adoptive parent, or legal guardian of an employee or an employee’s spouse or domestic partner or a person who stood in loco parentis when the employee was a minor child. Grandparent
• Grandchild
• Biological, foster, and adopted sibling
• Any other individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.

• Accrual begins on February 16, 2025, or upon commencement of the employee's employment, whichever is later.
• An employee may use earned sick time as it is accrued.
• Covered employees accrue one hour of paid ESTA Leave for every 30 hours worked, but shall not be entitled to use more than 72 hours per benefit year (July 1 - June 30).

Eligible employees can check their ESTA Leave balance and make requests by logging into MyNMU and clicking on the "ESTA" tile.

Guides on how to navigate the system can be found here.

No. ESTA leave taken for less than a full day must be taken, and will be charged, in increments of tenths (10ths) of one hour. 

For example, an absence of two hours and six minutes would be charged as 2.1 hours of ESTA Leave.

Note: 

• Leave requests should submitted for the amount of time absent from the scheduled workday. Employees cannot request more time off than the hours are scheduled.
• A request cannot exceed the accrued/available ESTA leave balance.
  • The leave balances provided are reflective of a pay period lag, meaning they represent the leave accrued up to the most recently completed pay period. These balances do not account for any future absences or time off that has been requested but not yet processed within the payroll system.

As Exempt employees, Adjuncts, GTAs and TAs accrue like all other exempt employees accrue paid time off based on established weekly workhours.

These employee groups will not use the ESTA Leave Request site. Leave requests should follow internal departmental processes.

Employees should follow their departmental procedures when communicating absences.

• If the need for ESTA Leave is foreseeable an employee shall provide advance notice of the intention to use the leave.
• If the need for ESTA Leave is not foreseeable an employee shall give notice of the intention as soon as practicable.

To ensure proper record-keeping and payroll processing, all employees are required to submit requests through the ESTA Leave request system.

Eligible employees can check their ESTA Leave balance and make requests by logging into MyNMU and clicking on the "ESTA" tile.

Note: 

• Leave requests should submitted for the amount of time absent from the scheduled workday. Employees cannot request more time off than the hours are scheduled.
• A request cannot exceed the accrued/available ESTA leave balance.
  • The leave balances provided are reflective of a pay period lag, meaning they represent the leave accrued up to the most recently completed pay period. These balances do not account for any future absences or time off that has been requested but not yet processed within the payroll system.

Guides on how to navigate the system can be found here.

Eligible employees currently working for NMU accrue ESTA Leave, and all hours rollover from year to year. There is no expiration date. However, employees are not entitled to use more than 72 hours of paid earned sick time per benefit year (July 1 - June 30).

Individuals who have not worked for NMU for more than 2 months lose all accrued, unused earned sick time.

Yes, ESTA Leave is connected to the individual, not the position. The accrued leave will be retained if an individual holds more than one position or changes jobs*.

* Individuals who have not worked for NMU for more than 2 months lose all accrued, unused earned sick time.

No. Employees will not be paid for unused ESTA Leave at separation according to the Act. 

Employees will select their supervisor, or the department timesheet approver, directly in the system. The selected individual will receive an email notification when a request is made.

In addition, all department approvers will be able to access the ESTA Leave request system to view, reassign, and/or approve and reject requests. Supervisors and approvers can enter the system through MyNMU by clicking on the ESTA Leave Request tile. This function ensures that employee requests are processed appropriately and timely.

Supervisors/timesheet approvers approve and reject requests based on sufficient ESTA Leave availability and employee eligibility through the ESTA Leave request system.

• Requests will be emailed to the selected departmental employee. Requests should be reviewed upon/close to the receipt of the email.
• Final timesheet approvers must also enter the ESTA Leave request system to ensure there are no pending requests prior to submitting Ultratime timesheets to payroll each pay period. Timesheet approvers can enter the system through MyNMU by clicking on the ESTA Leave Request tile. 

Guides on how to navigate the system can be found here.

Rejected Requests:

Requests can be rejected for the following reasons:

1. The request exceeded the time absent/maximum scheduled hours for that workday.
2. The request exceeded the accrued/available ESTA leave balance.

Reject the request in the system and make comments for the rationale. The employee will receive a rejection email with your comment. The employee will need to resubmit a request that meets eligibility criteria.

Approved Requests:

To process approved ESTA Leave requests, supervisors/approvers must complete TWO steps:

1. Supervisors/approvers approve requests based on sufficient ESTA Leave accrual and employee eligibility through the ESTA Leave request system.
2. If approved:
   1. The ESTA Leave must be entered into Ultratime to receive pay for the absence.
   2. Paid leave is entered under the Absence Tab. Submit the number of hours, absence code and position code, then check the paid box.
      • Student Labor (FICA exempt) use the Absence Code ESA
      • Temporary Labor, Casual Labor, Student Temps use the Absence Code EST
   3. Guidance on navigating the UltraTime system can be found on the Payroll website.