Salary Continuation for Qualifying Short-Term Disabilities, Maternity Leaves, and Long-Term Disabilities

Scope

Exempt employees

Policy Statement

The University's Salary Continuation Plan ("Salary Continuation Plan") provides certain salary continuation benefits for an eligible exempt staff or faculty employee if the employee is absent from work due to an injury or sickness that prevents the employee from performing any and every duty of the employee's regular occupation, and if the other requirements of the Salary Continuation Plan are satisfied. Satisfaction of these requirements will allow such benefits to be provided for qualifying short-term disabilities, maternity leaves, and long-term disabilities.

The University's director of Benefits and Human Resource Services ("director") is responsible for administering the Salary Continuation Plan. A claim for benefits under the Salary Continuation Plan must be in writing on a form approved by the director and filed with the University's Human Resources office within 20 days from the date of an eligible employee's total disability, or as soon thereafter as reasonably possible. Initial proof of an eligible employee's total disability must be provided by a licensed physician who is qualified to determine total disability, and must be given to the director before any Salary Continuation Plan payments will be made. If the requirements of the Salary Continuation Plan are satisfied, an exempt staff or faculty employee will be eligible for the following semimonthly payments:

for the first 16 weeks of a qualifying total disability, an amount that is equal to 100 percent of the current salary that would otherwise be paid to the eligible employee during that period;
for the next 10 weeks of a qualifying total disability, an amount that is equal to 60 percent of the current salary that would otherwise be paid to the eligible employee during that period (if the eligible employee wishes to receive salary continuation payments after the 52nd week of total disability, he or she must, by the end of the first 26 weeks of total disability, apply for Social Security disability benefits from the Federal Social Security Administration);
for the next 26 weeks of a qualifying total disability, an amount that is equal to 50 percent of the current salary that would otherwise be paid to the eligible employee during that period; and
after the 52nd week of a qualifying total disability, if the Social Security Administration has determined that the eligible employee is entitled to Social Security disability benefits and if the eligible employee has completed at least 12 months of active employment with the University, an amount that is equal to 50 percent of the current salary that would otherwise be paid to the eligible employee during that period (if the eligible employee became totally disabled on or before the attainment of age 60, salary continuation benefits under the Plan generally would be paid until the eligible employee attained page 65, except to the extent the Salary Continuation Plan provides otherwise).

The Salary Continuation Plan benefits described in the preceding paragraphs will be reduced by certain amounts that the eligible employee (or his or her spouse or dependents) received or is entitled to receive for the same period, e.g., Social Security disability benefits, Workers' Compensation benefits, and certain other payments specified in the Salary Continuation Plan. Current salary means, for purposes of the preceding paragraphs, a participant's base annual salary at the time the participant becomes totally disabled, exclusive of overtime, overload, bonuses, supplemental summer compensation, or other extra or additional forms of compensation received (if a participant is on a University-approved leave of absence with pay, his or her current salary will be computed on the percentage being paid).

If an eligible employee is a participant in the University's TIAA-CREF Noncontributory Retirement Plan at the time that he or she has a qualifying total disability, the University will make contributions to that Plan of 11 percent of the benefits actually paid under the Salary Continuation Plan to the extent such contributions are made in accordance with the requirements of the TIAA-CREF Noncontributory Retirement Plan and the Salary Continuation Plan. Premiums for University medical, basic group-term life insurance, basic accidental death and dismemberment, and preventive dental coverage that an exempt staff or faculty employee is eligible for generally will be deducted from benefits paid under the Salary Continuation Plan during the first 16 weeks of total disability (and will be waived in subsequent weeks of total disability), to the extent the requirements of the Salary Continuation Plan and the other applicable plans are satisfied.

During the first twelve months of total disability, an eligible employee will have to provide, at least once every four weeks, new correspondence from a qualified licensed physician verifying that the total disability continues. The Salary Continuation Plan also has several other requirements that must be satisfied in order to receive benefits, including special eligibility requirements, a list of exclusions from coverage, limitations on how long benefits will be paid, requirements regarding when survivor benefits will be paid, conditions that will result in a termination of coverage, and special rules for a recurrent disability.

Details of the Salary Continuation Plan are on file in the Human Resources office. The entire cost of the Salary Continuation Plan is paid by the University. A period of coverage under the Salary Continuation Plan generally will be counted against allowable leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Any employee absent from work for more than one continuous week must report to the Syracuse University Health Service for approval prior to returning to work. The employee must bring a return to work form completed by the employee's supervisor and the employee's physician when reporting to the Health Service.

Policy Administration

Human Resources

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Amended: February 2007

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Scope

Policy Statement

Policy Administration

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