UC is committed to supporting faculty and staff who need time off to care for a family member or to bond with a new child. Family and Medical Leave (FML) provides job protection when employees need time off for a number of reasons, consistent with federal and state law. UC's Pay for Family Care and Bonding (PFCB) program gives employees the option to replace some of the income they would otherwise lose during their approved leave.
The PFCB pay option provides income replacement of 100% of eligible earnings for up to eight workweeks per calendar year to replace the income that employees would otherwise lose during an approved Family and Medical Leave taken for a qualifying reason.
To qualify, the FML leave must be taken in a block of one workweek or more, for any of the following purposes:
- Care for a family member with a serious health condition
- Bonding with a new child
- Military Caregiver Leave
- Qualifying Exigency Leave
Family and Medical Leave (FML) is job-protected leave provided by the University for specified family and medical reasons consistent with the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), and California’s Pregnancy Disability Leave Law (PDLL). PFCB is not an option if you’re taking FML for your own serious health condition or your pregnancy disability.
Eligibility
Who's eligible: Non-represented employees on an approved block FML leave for one workweek or more for one of the qualifying reasons above. The same is true for represented employees in bargaining units that are participating in the program. (Most units are participating. Please refer to your unit’s collective bargaining agreement.)
Who pays: UC
Please note: To be eligible for PFCB, you must first be eligible for a qualifying Family and Medical Leave under FMLA and/or CFRA. This requires that you have been employed by UC for at least a total of 12 months and that you have actually worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months immediately before the start of the leave.
To learn more about eligibility for Family and Medical Leave, see:
- UC’s Absence from Work Policy, Personnel Policies for Staff Members (for PPSM-covered employees)
- Leaves of Absence/Family and Medical Leave, Academic Personnel Manual (for non-represented academic employees)
- The article regarding leaves of absence in the applicable collective bargaining agreement (for represented employees)
How the program works
While FML may generally be taken as a block leave, intermittently, or by working a reduced schedule, PFCB is only an option if you take FML in a block of at least one workweek.
You may opt to use other forms of paid leave (such as sick leave, vacation or PTO) before or after using PFCB, but not at the same time. If you elect to use PFCB, you must continue to use PFCB until your qualifying FML block leave ends or you exhaust your full 8 workweeks of PFCB for the calendar year.
Note: If your FML ends before you have used the full 8 workweeks of PFCB for the calendar year, you may use the remainder if you have another qualifying FML block leave later in the calendar year.
Because there are so many factors to consider in planning your Family and Medical Leave, it can get complicated. Explore UC’s resources to understand how leave and pay provisions work together, but it’s also important to talk to the individual or office coordinating your leave as soon as possible.
