UTMB Health remains grateful for the extraordinary service and compassion of our employees during this COVID-19 emergency. I understand the concern and anxiety caused by the pandemic, yet you have worked tirelessly to preserve the critical elements of our mission and provide life-saving care.
To help meet the needs our workforce, UTMB has enhanced its emergency leave benefit. This benefit provides eligible employees up to 80 hours of paid leave for qualifying COVID-19-related reasons. It also ensures those granted time off will receive 100% of their base pay rate for those hours, as opposed to a calculated pay rate with daily and total dollar limits prescribed by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.
The emergency leave benefit became effective April 1, 2020. For more details, please refer to the summary document and frequently asked questions.
Employees may request emergency leave by:
- Notifying your manager of the need for leave through established departmental procedures.
- Submitting an emergency leave time-off request through the Kronos timekeeping system.
- Completing an online form that will be sent to you via email and documenting the qualifying COVID-19-related reason for the leave.
Full instructions on requesting emergency leave are available here. You may also reach out to your manager or your department’s HR Business Partner or Employee Relations Advisor for additional guidance.
Please know there is nothing more important at this time than your health and welfare and that of your family, and UTMB is committed to providing the resources needed to help our workforce overcome this public health challenge.
Thank you.
Ben G. Raimer, MD, MA, FAAP
President ad interim