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.
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).
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
Who’s eligible
To be eligible for PFCB, you must first be eligible and approved for Family Medical Leave under FMLA and/or CFRA. This requires that you have been employed by UC for at least a total of twelve (12) months and that you have actually worked at least 1,250 hours during the twelve (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)
- The article regarding leaves of absence in the applicable collective bargaining agreement (for represented employees)
Employees on an approved block FML leave for one workweek or more for one of the qualifying reasons above may be eligible for PFCB. Most bargaining units are participating in PFCB. If you are a represented employee, please refer to your unit’s collective bargaining agreement.
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.
To find out whether you’re eligible for Pay For Family Care and Bonding or what leave options may be available to you, please contact your Leave of Absence Coordinator for consultation and guidance.