Title: Personal Leave
Approved by:
Date Approved:
Effective Date: 07/29/2019
Responsible Official: Vice President of Human Resources
Responsible University Office: HR Employee Relations
Revision History: 01/01/1995; 01/01/2002; 01/01/2008; 06/03/2019
Related Legislation and University policies:
Review Period: 5 years
Date of Last Review:
Relates to: executive staff, senior staff, and staff
Exclusions: none
Policy Statement
Occasionally, employees have unique opportunities for personal and professional development which conflict with their availability to perform their jobs for a specified period of time. The university recognizes the related value of personal growth for legitimate purposes such as: education, travel, journalism, civic responsibilities, retreat, and other career planning situations or family-related situations. Therefore, the university may provide unpaid personal leaves of absence for up to twelve (12) weeks if approved by the supervisor. The university may provide an extension of such leaves on rare occasions. However, personal leaves are not granted for engaging in employment outside of CWRU.
Supervisors are responsible for reviewing the legitimacy of the request and confirming the leave, if approved, will not interrupt normal departmental operations and services. The employee’s position will be held for a maximum of twelve (12) weeks if the position has not already been held for twelve (12) weeks during the previous twelve (12) months. The employee and supervisor will agree as to the start and end dates of the leave before the leave commences.
Unused vacation time must be used prior to commencing the unpaid portion of the leave, but will be included as part of the total leave time.
Employees who are on a paid leave will remain in their current Benelect program according to the Benelect plan and continue to accrue service time towards benefits based on active status. Once an employee commences an unpaid leave, they are eligible to continue benefits under COBRA; the employee is responsible for arranging for Benelect continuation. If an employee returns to work from an unpaid leave on the first work day of the month, their benefits are reinstated effective that day; if the employee’s return to work is after the first work day of the month, their benefits are reinstated effective the following month.
Employees are not eligible for tuition benefits during an unpaid personal leave.