Voluntary Leave Without Pay with Benefits
The University of Kansas offers a voluntary leave without pay with benefits program which allows an employee in a regular position to request leave without pay and retain health insurance coverage during the absence. Voluntary leave without pay with benefits may be approved during a period of reduced unit activity or for personal circumstances.
Fiscal year Faculty, Unclassified Academic Staff, Unclassified Professional Staff, and University Support Staff appointed to regular positions.
Leave without pay with benefits may be requested by the employee to his/her immediate supervisor for non-medical absences and may be approved by his/her unit head. The leave must ultimately be of mutual benefit to the unit and the employees as determined by the unit head and Human Resources. Such requests must be sent to Human Resources for review and final approval.
Leave Period:
Depending on the needs of the department and the employee, a voluntary leave may be full-time or part-time. A minimum leave period of two (2) weeks is required to participate in the Voluntary Leave Without Pay with Benefits program and the leave period cannot exceed twelve (12) weeks in a twelve (12) month period.
Requesting and Reporting Paid Leave:
To ensure existing benefits coverage (including health insurance) is maintained during the voluntary leave without pay period, participating employees will be required to report paid leave or work a portion of each pay period.
The process for requesting and reporting leave is described on the HR website.
This program does not affect eligibility to take paid leave under the other, existing leave policies and is not applicable to leaves of absence related to medical leave.
Leave without pay can only be granted to salaried (exempt) employees in full day increments.
Sick leave is used only for medical related absences and will not be granted for use with the Voluntary Leave Without Pay program.
Taking leave without pay affects leave accruals, contributions to retirement plans, other salary-based programs, length of service if leave exceeds 30 days, etc.
Human Resources
103 Carruth-O’Leary Hall
1246 W. Campus Road
Lawrence, KS 66045
785-864-4946
hrdept@ku.edu
In pay status refers to the work periods for which an employee is receiving pay by virtue of working or being on paid leave.
10/19/2016: Added personal circumstances to purpose, changed minimum duration to 2 weeks from 4 weeks, added an exclusion that sick leave cannot be used.
02/19/2016: Updated to apply to staff. Updated Contact information and definitions, updated title and purpose statement, removed reference to related policies
01/21/2015: Policy formatting cleanup (e.g., bolding, spacing).
