Holidays & Leave

Short-term Disability

 

Short-term Disability is an insurance benefit and does not provide job protection. Please review the family and medical leave (FML) page for more information on job protected leave. 
 
The University's Short-term Disability insurance benefit plan helps to replace income lost due to a qualifying disability for up to 11 weeks out of a 13 week period. See the dropdown menus below for more information.
 
This Short-term Disability insurance benefit is provided to eligible employees at no cost. 

In order to receive Short-term Disability insurance benefits, an employee must use the unpaid Short-term Disability earnings code (622) on their time sheet for either 60%  or 100% of the time an employee is receiving Short-term Disability insurance benefits. This means the employee may not receive any pay from the University of ÐßÐßÊÓƵ(if using earnings code 622 for 100% of their time) or it will be reduced (if using earnings code 622 for 60% of time), but the employee will separately be receiving Short-term Disability insurance benefit payments at the same time. Please review the drop down below regarding how to record your time on your time sheet. Please be aware that supervisors will be informed that their employee has a Short-term Disability insurance benefit claim. They will not be provided with any medical details, only that their employee has an open claim and the time frame the employee is covered by Short-term Disability. 

The Short-term Disability insurance benefit earnings code (622) does not generate any pay. This may have an effect on retirement benefits and benefit deductions & arrears.

Retirement Effects
Retirement accounts managed through the ÐßÐßÊÓƵDivision of Retirement and Benefits (DRB), including the Public Employees Retirement Plan (PERS) and the Teachers Retirement Plan (TRS) may be affected. Please contact the at 1-800-821-2251 to discuss potential effects. The Short-term Disability earnings code (622) may not have the same effect on the Optional Retirement Program (ORP); however, if an employee is not generating pay, they will not receive contributions to their ORP retirement account.  

 Benefit Deductions & Arrears Effects
An employee's coverages remain active while they are on Short-term Disability. Depending on pay received from the University of ÐßÐßÊÓƵduring this time, an employee may generate arrears that will need to be repaid when they return. Please review the Health Coverages page for more details on the arrears process. 

If an employee is working at all while receiving Short-term Disability insurance payments, the insurance payment will be reduced. More information can be found in the Full Short-term Disability Plan Book. 

Please review the drop-down menu items below for high-level information related to this benefit.

Training with Unum
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Telephone: 866-779-1054 | Fax: 800-447-2498
Monday-Friday | 4:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Alaskan

Benefit-eligible Employees
All benefit-eligible full-time and part-time employees working at least 20 hours per week are eligible for the benefit. Coverage will begin on the first day of the month following your first 30 days of work.

Automatic Enrollment
Eligible employees are automatically enrolled for Short-term Disability. There is nothing you need to do to enroll. This is a fixed plan offered and no changes to the plan can be made.

Experiencing an Event
If you experience a Short-term Disability event, please contact Unum at 866-779-1054. 

Employer Paid
There is no bi-weekly premium. This is an employer paid benefit.

As of July 1, 2024...

Employees Supplementing their Short-term Disability Insurance Payment with their Own Leaves
Employees must use sick leave (earnings code 550) on their time sheets for all time out of the office if wanting to supplement their Short-term Disability insurance payment with their own pay. 

Employees NOT Supplementing their Short-term Disability Insurance Payment with their Own Leaves
Employees who do not wish to supplement their pay with their own paid leaves must use Short-term Disability leave (earnings code 622) on their time sheets. This is an unpaid earnings code and employees using 622 will receive no additional pay outside of their Short-term Disability insurance payment (and any hours worked while on Short-term Disability). 

Please review the Short-term Disability Process Changes news article for the details on the change. 

 

 

 

The process below is for employees on Short-term Disability prior to July 1, 2024

 

Earnings Code 622 (Unpaid Earnings Code)
If approved for Short-term Disability insurance benefits, use earnings code 622 on your time sheet for 60% of your time while out of the office and receiving Short-term Disability insurance benefit payments. Earnings code 622 is an unpaid earnings code. Unum provides payment to you directly for your time on Short-term Disability insurance, not the University of Alaska. Please do not use this code unless you have been approved for Short-term Disability, as using earnings code 622 on your time sheet will not generate any pay. Employees have two options when completing their time sheet: (1) supplement with paid leaves or (2) do not supplement with paid leaves.

In no case should an employee receive more than 100% of their pay. In some cases, an employee receiving Short-term Disability insurance payments will not receive 100% of their pay due to the $800/week cap on the insurance benefit payments. Overtime is not allowed while on Short-term Disability. 

Not supplementing pay while on Short-term Disability
If not using paid leave to supplement pay:

    • Use earnings code 622 for 100% of pay

Supplementing pay while on Short-term Disability
Employees can choose to use their paid leaves to supplement their Short-term Disability payments. In this case, payments will come from two (2) locations: the University of ÐßÐßÊÓƵfor paid leaves and Unum for the Short-term Disability insurance payment. 

If using paid leave to supplement pay:

    • Use earnings code 010 for any time worked
    • Use earnings code 622 for 60% of time out of the office
    • Use sick leave earnings code 550 for 40% of time out of the office

Examples on How to Supplement Pay

Full-time Employee - Supplementing Pay and Not Working While Receiving Short-term Disability Insurance Benefits
Jude is a full time employee who is normally scheduled to work 40 hours per week. They will not be working while they are receiving Short-term Disability.

      • 60% - They will use Short-term Disability (earnings code 622) for 3 days (24 hours, representing the 60% payment from Unum).
      • 40% - For the remaining time that is not yet accounted for on the time sheet, they will use Sick Leave (earnings code 550). In this case, it will be for 2 days (16 hours).

Full-time Employee - Supplementing Pay and Working While Receiving Short-term Disability Insurance Benefits
Kaela is a full time employee who is normally scheduled to work 40 hours per week. She will be working 8 hours per week while she is receiving Short-term Disability.

      • She will use Regular Pay (earnings code 010) for 1 day (8 hours).
      • For the remaining 4 days (32 hours) Kaela will split the time accordingly...
        • 60% - She will use Short-term Disability (earnings code 622) for 19.2 hours, representing the 60% payment from Unum
        • 40% - For the remaining time (12.8 hours) not yet accounted for on the time sheet, she will use Sick Leave (earnings code 550)

Part-time Employee - Supplementing Pay and Not Working While Receiving Short-term Disability Insurance Benefits
Mary is a part-time employee who is normally scheduled to work 25 hours per week. She will not be working while she is receiving Short-term Disability. 

      • 60% - She will use Short-term Disability (earnings code 622) for 3 days (15 hours, representing the 60% payment from Unum).
      • 40% - For the remaining time that is not yet accounted for on the time sheet, she will use Sick Leave (earnings code 550). In this case, it will be for 2 days (10 hours).

Part-time Employee - Supplementing Pay and Working While Receiving Short-term Disability Insurance Benefits
Patrick is a part-time employee who is normally scheduled to work 20 hours per week. He will be working 4 hours per week while he is receiving Short-term Disability.