Taking a leave of absence can seem overwhelming but it's a good choice
when your caregivers need to address personal, health, or family matters.
It offers your caregivers the needed time and space to focus on important
issues without the pressure of work. MySedgwick, our leaves and accommodations
platform, helps you navigate the leave of absence journey.
As a core leader, your support for your caregivers becomes especially critical
when they are absent. Here are the key things you should know.
MySedgwick is the platform used to report and manage leaves of absence.
Our leaves are handled within federal and state guidelines, as well as
company policy and/or collective bargaining agreements. Leaves can be
continuous or intermittent. Each leave has specific rules on how the time
can be taken and whether or not core leader approval is required. For
leaves applicable to your team, please view the leave policy by selecting
your work location from the HR
Policy Resource Library.
Our Absence and Disability Management (ADM) team provides additional support
for you and your teams during the Leave of Absence process. Sedgwick serves
as the leave administrator, and the ADM team will provide support to all
parties as necessary if there are additional questions that arise during
the leave of absence process.
Requesting a leave
Absences lasting more than three days and intermittent absences for the
same issue require a leave of absence. If the need for the leave is scheduled
(e.g., surgery or birth), it is always best for the caregiver to request
a leave before the first day of absence.
A caregiver has up to 30 days to submit a completed certification form
to Sedgwick. Within two business days of receiving the certification,
Sedgwick will make an approval/denial determination and notify the caregiver
and core leader. This means the caregiver could be absent for up to three
weeks before Sedgwick has the information needed to make a decision regarding
the leave case.
Direct caregivers requesting a leave of absence to:
Call Sedgwick -or-
Log into MySedgwick
To verify that the leave has been reported to Sedgwick, you can:
Review the new claim email notification from Sedgwick-Core leaders are
responsible for approving or denying requests for personal or educational
leaves by responding to the email from Sedgwick.
Review the weekly summary report emailed from Sedgwick
Note: Caregivers working with a state disability insurance (SDI) and/or paid
family leave (PPL) such as CA or WA are required to apply for benefits
through the state for their own personal health condition and paid family
leave. Please direct your caregivers to the appropriate state agency noted below.
Washington: Employment Development Department (EDD) at 833-717-2273 or visit
paidleave.wa.gov
Oregon: Visit paid.leave.oregon.gov/
While on leave
Monitor the leave – time reported by the caregiver to you should
match what is reported to Sedgwick.
Sedgwick will manage the leave through the return to work, leave exhaustion
or denial.
Maintain regular contact with the caregiver; you may want to schedule regular
check-ins to see how the caregiver is doing, based on the severity of
the disability and expected return-to-work date.
Caregivers should also keep in touch with their Core Leader regularly to
communicate any leave extensions they have requested and also to plan
their return to work.
Respond timely to any requests or questions from Sedgwick. These requests
will indicate "Action Required" in the subject line.
Review and approve timecards to ensure caregiver is paid according to policy
or as instructed by Sedgwick when provided. Timecard coding responsibility
varies by leave type, and in addition to the instructions provided by
Sedgwick please refer to the Timecard Coding Guidance document in the
Core Leader or Caregiver Knowledge Articles for Leave of Absence.
Absence and Disability Management will send pay information directly to
Kronos for all paid leaves (i.e. STD, pregnancy/maternity, paid parental
leave) except personal, military or educational leaves. When instructed
by Sedgwick, Core leaders are responsible for coding PTO hours based on
current policy (e.g., some policies may require PTO to be applied while
others may give the caregiver a choice).
Returning to work
Action: Develop a return-to-work plan
Contact the caregiver to confirm the return date
Remind the caregiver to submit the medical return-to-work release to Sedgwick
by faxing it to 866-315-0607, or by emailing it to:
provleaveforms@sedgwicksir.com
Sedgwick will send an email confirmation for a release to return to work
Once Sedgwick receives confirmation, the return-to-work date will be entered
in their system. The HR system will be updated to show the caregiver’s
status as Active the following business day.
Action: Respond to ADM or Sedgwick’s email about accommodating restrictions
– discuss with your caregiver and consult HR if necessary.
Under the law, employers and supervisors/managers need to reasonably accommodate
caregivers’ disabilities. Individual supervisors/managers should
educate themselves on this important topic.
Action: Confirm the actual return-to-work date as quickly as possible to ensure
systems are updated appropriately by responding to Sedgwick's return-to-work
confirmation email or by calling Sedgwick directly. Contact your HR for
questions about employment/performance issues.
If the caregiver's disability extends beyond 26 weeks, he or she may qualify
for Long-Term Disability (LTD) benefits. Sedgwick will automatically refer
the caregiver’s leave information to the LTD carrier, NY Life (formerly
Cigna), for review and processing. NY Life will reach out to caregivers
approaching the 26-week wait period to discuss this benefit in detail.
For more information, the caregiver can also contact NY Life directly.
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