Leave Benefits

Below are brief overviews of the Leave Benefits available.

For detailed policy content, please refer to our Handbooks & Policies page.

Earned Time

Earned time is a form of paid time off and combines sick and vacation time. This form of paid time off gives the most flexibility to staff to use their valued time away. The College encourages the use of earned time as a necessary time for staff to recharge. The use of earned time should be planned and scheduled when at all possible. Individual departments may develop departmental procedures for scheduling and approving time off.

Employees should plan time off only when they have enough earned time to cover their absence.

If an employee separates from the College and has a negative earned time balance, the earned time owed to the College will be deducted from their last pay check.

Maine Earned Paid Leave

The Maine Earned Paid Leave (MEPL) law requires employers to provide up to 40 hours of paid leave annually to their employees. It applies to employers with 10 or more employees across the State of Maine who work more than 120 hours per calendar year.

Long Term Illness (LTI)

Regular full-time administrative staff are eligible to participate in the Long Term Illness plan. Long Term Illness is a sick pay benefit that is meant to accrue over time to fill in the gap between the use of Earned Time and the qualification for Long Term Disability benefits.

Bereavement Leave

Any regular full-time or regular part staff may take up to five (5) working days of bereavement leave upon request. This leave is to be used to make arrangements for and to attend services for an immediate family member (see policy for definitions of ‘immediate family member’). Bereavement days are meant to be taken consecutively.

One (1) day may be taken to attend the funeral of other relatives of the employee or for any friend living in the household. If additional time is required, the employee may request to use Earned Time.

Family Medical Leave

Both the Federal government and the State of Maine have passed laws defining family medical leave benefits. The eligibility and benefits for each plan differ slightly. When an employee is considering a leave, the Human Resource Office will review both family leave benefits with him/her to determine and explain which will apply and why. Leaves will generally run concurrently.

Compassionate Earned Time Donation

To assist and support employees by allowing pay continuation during a personal catastrophic situation. Eligibility includes any regular full time administrative staff, twelve-month appointed full time faculty and regular part time administrative staff (24 to 31 hours) who has a catastrophic situation and has exhausted all eligible Earned Time (ET) and/ or Long Term Illness (LTI) as applicable. Catastrophic situations are events that have an overwhelming impact on one’s ability to work (e.g. serious illness, needing to care for a seriously ill family member, tragic acts of nature e.g. destruction of primary residence).

Faculty Short Term Medical Leave with Pay

The College provides a salary continuance benefit for faculty members who are on an approved short-term medical disability leave. The benefit schedule is as follows:

Requests for short-term medical leaves with pay are submitted in writing to Human Resources. This leave is available once every three years. For this purpose, years are counted from the beginning of the last approved short-term medical leave with pay.

Jury Duty and Appearance Witness Leave

Full-time and regular part-time employees who, during their regular working hours, actively serve on jury duty or are under subpoena as a witness, when not a principal, continue to receive their regular pay. When requesting jury duty pay, employees should attach a copy of their subpoena to their time sheet. Employees shall return to work within a reasonable time on days released from such duty.

Military Leave

Reservists and members of the National Guard. Full-time and regular part-time employees serving in the reserve or National Guard will be granted military leave to enable them to attend training as reservists or guard members. Regular employees will be eligible for unpaid leave for up to ten days of training leave each year.

Active Duty. Employees entering active duty either voluntarily or through the draft will be granted unpaid leave. Upon completion of service, those employees who satisfy the reporting, notification, reapplication, and honorable service provision of USERRA will be accorded the reemployment and benefits rights as provided by USERRA. In general, you must return to your regular work schedule without delay.

Employees who will require leave are expected to show their orders to the Human Resource Director as soon as they are received.

Violence Leave

A full-time or regular part-time employee who is a victim of violence, or any act that would support an order for protection may have necessary leave without pay to:

• Prepare for and attend court proceedings;
• Receive medical treatment; or attend to medical treatment for a victim who is the employee’s daughter, son, parent or spouse; or
• Obtain necessary services to remedy a crisis caused by domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.

Such leaves are subject to reasonable notification to the College and will be granted only if the College would not sustain undue hardship from the employee’s absence.

OFFICE