- Why do I have to report unpaid leaves of absences/FMLA?
A member may be able to purchase TRS service credit for a period of the unpaid leave of absence. Providing leave information allows TRS to notify the member of his/her right to claim the service credit. While TRS may need additional information, TRS is able to begin processing the optional service claim. Leave of absence information reduces inquiries in future years when the member realizes the potential for claiming the unpaid leave of absence for optional service credit. Without this information, inquiries often are made several years after the leave occurred, resulting in a request for information from employers that sometimes is decades after the leave and no longer available.
- How do I report members who are on an unpaid board approved leave of absence?
You should report members who are on an unpaid board approved leave of absence by using the LA (leave of absence) payment reason. While reporting a member on a leave of absence, you must report the days the member has been unpaid using the days paid field.
For example, if a member is on a leave during pay period, and during that pay period he/she would normally have worked 12 days, you would report 12 in the days paid field to indicate the days they missed. Docked Days should not be reported for a member who is on an approved Leave of Absence (LA).
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What do I report as the Full Annual Rate for a member on an unpaid board approved leave of absence/FMLA?
When a member purchases a leave of absence, the cost is based on the annual salary rate prior to the leave of absence.Full Annual Rate is required for full-time and part-time contractual teachers who are on an unpaid leave of absence/FMLA. For a member who starts the year on an unpaid leave of absence/FMLA, report the Full Annual Rate as the base rate for the prior year. For a teacher who goes on an unpaid leave of absence during the year, report the Full Annual Rate equal to the base rate for the current year.
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Do I report docked days for members who are on an unpaid leave of absence/FMLA?
While reporting a member on a leave of absence/FMLA, you must report the days the member has been unpaid using the Days Paid field. If a member is on an unpaid leave of absence/FMLA, do not report dock days. Dock days are reported for days docked that are not covered by a board approved leave of absence/FMLA.
- We have certified employees who go on unpaid FMLA for a certain period which could be several days or months. Currently, their salaries are reduced by the number of unpaid days, but they continue to get paid every payroll based on the new reduced salary. They will never be without a paycheck, but when they are paid, they may not be working any days. How will this be reported?
In each pay period, you will report Days Paid as the actual number of days the member worked and/or used accumulated leave time (sick leave, personal leave, vacation leave). Payment Reason of LA – Unpaid Leave of Absence will be the number of days the teacher was on an unpaid leave of absence during the pay period.
If in a pay period a teacher has 0 days paid but has BS – base earnings reported because the salary has been recalculated so the teacher can receive a paycheck, every pay period the earnings will be flagged as deferred.
Example:
Teacher A has a base salary of $40,000. The district pays her salary over 24 pays. Each pay she is paid $1,666.67. In October, she begins an unpaid leave of absence for 30 days and her salary is recalculated. The amount she will earn for the full year with a 30-day unpaid leave of absence is $33,333.33. She will be paid $1,666.67 for four pay periods (two in September and two in October). Her new contract of $26,666.65 ($33,333.33 - $6,666.68) will be paid over the remaining 20 pay periods. Her new earnings per pay period are $1,333.33.
Her Full Annual Rate on every report will be $40,000.
Her Base Earnings – BS- will be $1,666.67 for the first four pay periods and $1.333.33 for the remaining 20 pay periods.
Her unpaid days were as follows: 9 unpaid days in October, 19 unpaid days in November and 2 unpaid days in December.The October, November and December pay periods will be reported as follows:
October 16-30 BS: $1,6666.67 BS Days Paid: 3 LA Days Paid: 9 Deferred Flag: N November 1-15 BS: $1,333.33 BS Days Paid: 0 LA Days Paid: 11 Deferred Flag: Y November 16-30 BS: $1,333.33 BS Days Paid: 0 LA Days Paid: 8 Deferred Flag: Y December 1-15 BS: $1,333.33 BS Days Paid: 8 LA Days Paid: 2 Deferred Flag: N
In this example each pay period after the fourth one would have a warning edit invoke. You would need to review the reported information and certify that it has been reported correctly.
- When a teacher is docked, we recalculate their contract and pay the new amount due over the remaining pay periods. How do I report Days Paid and Docked Days?
In each pay period, you will report Days Paid as the actual number of days the member worked and/or used accumulated leave time (sick leave, personal leave, vacation leave). Docked days will be the number of days the teacher was docked during the pay period.
If in a pay period a teacher has 0 days paid but has BS – base earnings reported because the salary has been recalculated so the teacher can receive a paycheck every pay period, the earnings will be flagged as deferred.
Example:
Teacher B has a base salary of $64,800. The district pays his salary over 24 pays. Each pay he is paid $2,700. After working 94 days, he is docked 20 days. The district knows that he will be absent 20 days and they recalculate his salary. The amount he will earn for the full year is $64,800 / 180 x 160 = $57,600. At the point that he is to begin his dock, he had been paid 9 pay periods x $2,700 = $24,300. His new contract of $33,300 ($57,600 - $24,300) will be paid over the remaining 15 pay periods. His new earnings per pay period is $2,220.
His Full Annual Rate on every report will be $64,800.
His Base Earnings – BS- will be $2,700 for the first 9 pay periods and $2,220 for the remaining 15 pay periods.
He was docked over three pay periods. The three pay periods with the docks are reported as follows:
There will be a warning invoked on this member because he has earnings reported with 0 days paid. The district will need to confirm that the reported information is correct.
Days Paid – 5, Docked Days – 5
Days Paid – 0, Docked Days – 5 (There were only 5 paid days this pay period due to unpaid holidays and emergency days).
Days Paid – 1, Docked Days – 10
- A teacher is on an FMLA leave for 75 days. Of the 75 days, 30 are paid sick leave days, 20 are paid sick leave bank days and 25 are unpaid days. How many days do I report as a leave of absence?
The payment category of LA – Unpaid leave of absence – is only used for days which the member is not paid.
The 50 days of sick leave and sick leave bank days will be reported as Days Paid in the pay periods in which the sick leave days were used. The 25 unpaid days will be reported as payment reason of LA – Unpaid leave of absence in the pay periods in which the unpaid leave occurs.
- How do I report someone who is on a full year board approved leave of absence?
Each pay period that the member does not work but is on a board approved leave of absence is reported as Payment Reason of LA – Unpaid Leave of Absence, Days Paid – the number of days the member would have worked in the pay period. For example, a member is on an unpaid leave. During this pay period they missed 12 days for which they would have been paid, you would report 12 in the Days Paid field to indicate the days they missed.
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How will deducts/dock days be handled; payroll does not always get these on a timely basis?
Report the dock day in the period in which the docking occurs. For example, on the pay period ended 10/15, a teacher was absent one day but the salary was docked the following pay period (10/31). Report the docking on the 10/31 report.