Leaves of Absence

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Before requesting your leave of absence, review the following to learn more about each leave type.

Family Medical Leave Act/California Family Rights Act

This leave type is available for employees who have worked at FHCSD for at least one year and 1,250 hours. Qualified employees may take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave per rolling calendar period to care for the following reasons:

  • Birth of an employee’s child (leave must begin within one year of the birth)
  • Placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care (leave must begin within one year of the placement)
  • Care of employee’s immediate family member (child, spouse or parent) who has a serious health condition. (Parent may be a person who stood in the place of a parent [in loco-parentis] and raised the employee, but not parent-in-law.)
  • CFRA leave allows for the care of a spouse, registered domestic partner, parent, child (which includes an adult child of a registered domestic partner), grandparent, grandchild, and sibling.
  • Employee’s own serious health condition, which makes the employee unable to work at all, or is unable to perform any one or more of the essential functions of his or her job

Qualified employees may also request intermittent (“as-needed basis”) time off to care for a serious health condition for themselves, a spouse, parent or child due to medical appointments, flare-ups and other situations where a continued leave of absence is not needed.

The Leave Team will assess your eligibility and inform you if you qualify.

Pregnancy Disability Leave

Employees are entitled to take up to 17 and 1/3 weeks of leave, for each pregnancy, for periods they are disabled due to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions that make the employee unable to perform their job.

If an employee is disabled beyond four months, or is no longer disabled due to pregnancy, an additional 12 weeks may be available per the California Family Rights Act.

Employees going on Pregnancy Disability Leave may choose to use PTO/ESI, either PTO or ESI, or neither.

This type of leave does not have qualification requirements.

Military

Military Leave will be approved without pay, in accordance with state and federal regulations. Employees may use accrued PTO during military leave.

Return to Work

An employee’s separation from military service must be under honorable conditions to be entitled to reemployment with the company. An employee must be promptly re-employed in the following order of priority:

For an absence of 1 to 90 days:

  • The job the person would have held had the person remained continuously employed; or
  • The same position prior to leave; or
  • Any other position of lesser status and pay that the employee is qualified to perform.

For an absence of 90 days or more:

  • The job the person would have held had the person remained continuously employed or a position of equivalent seniority, status and pay; or
  • The same position prior to leave or a position of equivalent seniority, status and pay; or
  • Any other position of lesser status and pay that the employee is qualified to perform.

Employees must submit a written certification of the leave during deployment. Employees must provide notice to their supervisor and make a request for leave within two business days of receiving official notice of the leave.

Spouses of Military Members

Employees who are spouses of military members will be allowed 10 days of unpaid leave while their spouse is on leave from a military deployment. The deployment must be in a combat zone and the spouse must be on active duty, serving in the reserve military or serving in the National Guard during a period of military conflict. Employees are eligible for the leave if they work at least 20 hours a week on a regular basis. Independent contractors are not covered by this regulation.

Personal Non-Medical

  • An employee needing to be absent for one pay period or more may request a personal leave of absence.
  • Personal leaves are available to those who do not qualify under the other leave types.
  • Personal leaves are not job-protected.
  • PTO accrual usage is required for all approved personal leaves.
  • Examples of a personal non-medical leave of absence include: lack of childcare due to COVID 19, caring for a sick family member who doesn’t qualify under FMLA/CFRA and caring for an illness that does not constitute a serious health condition.

COVID-19 Related Leaves

Employees must report a positive result to their manager. Your manager will then report on the Employee Dashboard.

Continue to Work/Return to Work Guidelines

  • Please refer to these FHCSD COVID-19 Return to Work Guidelines to determine if and when you will be able to return to work.
  • If you will be off work longer than 7 days for a COVID-19 related leave, please contact your manager for further guidance.

Leave Request

  • FHCSD has outsourced leave of absence processing and approval to TriStar.
  • All leave request must be made, per policy, 30 days in advance when practicable, or the leave start may be delayed.

How to Request Your Leave

  • Call in your request: 844-702-2352 (6 AM through 6 PM PST, Mon-Fri)
  • Online: fhcsd.ess-absencetracker.com (Must click on Register New Account to get started)
  • Please note: Until you receive a leave of absence approval letter, you must report your absences, per policy to your manager.

Pay During Leave

  • Please consult with your manager/timecard approver regarding pay during leave according to policy

Additional Resources

For more information on state-funded wage replacement programs, such as State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave, visit www.edd.ca.gov.

For eligibility requirements and assistance with enrolling in Medi-Cal, please visit Medi-Cal Insurance | Services and Programs | FHCSD

San Diego County Food Banks

If you need food assistance, call 211 from your phone and an operator will provide you with the location of your nearest food distribution site. You can also call the Food Bank’s toll-free number at (866) 350-FOOD (3663).

San Diego County families looking for childcare can call to discuss needs with an advisor at (800) 481-2151.

Health care, first responders, law enforcement and military professionals can call (619) 952-0242.

Healthcare workers in need of childcare can reach out to the YMCA, which is offering enhanced referral services within the database of licensed family childcare homes and centers. Call (619) 952-0242.

The Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank

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