University Human Resources

Sick Time

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Sick Time

Employees receive paid sick time, which can be requested for themselves or certain family members.

  • Sick: Employee’s own illness or injury.
  • Family: Staff may use up to 12 sick days (90 hours)1 a year to care for a sick dependent (spouse or child) or seriously ill parent.
  • Sick and Safe Leave: Rhode Island law requiring employers to provide employees with a minimum number of days to take time away from work for an injury or illness or to care for a close family member with an injury or illness.

Regarding an employee's years of service, when an employee leaves the university and is later rehired, an employee's date of re-employment is less than one year after the most recent period of employment ceased, sick time accrual on record at the time the employee left Brown (up to a maximum of 12 days) will be restored by the hiring department. No reinstatement of prior sick time accrual is given if the employee is rehired more than one year after the most recent period of employment ceased.

Employee Type Yearly Total1 Accrual1 Maximum Carryover1, 2 Maximum Balance1
Salary (Exempt) 12 days 1 day/month 60 days 72 days
Hourly (Non-Exempt) 90 hours 3.462 hours/bi-weekly 450 hours 540 hours

1 Days/hours are prorated for part time employees.
2 Unused sick days/hours carryover on January 1.

Sick and Safe Leave

The Healthy and Safe Families and Workplaces Act, also known as Sick and Safe Leave, is a Rhode Island law that went into effect on July 1, 2018. The law requires employers to provide employees with a minimum number of days to take time away from work for an injury or illness or to care for a close family member with an injury or illness. Under the law, employees may also use Sick and Safe Leave should they or someone they care for experience domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. 

The act applies to nearly all employers in the state with 18 or more employees. Everyone who is employed by Brown is eligible for Sick and Safe Leave, including faculty, staff and student workers.

For many employees, the time allotted under Brown's existing Sick Time policy meets or exceeds Sick and Safe Leave requirements. For regular and fixed-term employees working 50 percent time or more, the new law does not increase sick leave time.

However, there are some differences between Sick and Safe Leave and sick time taken under Brown’s Sick Time policy. The new law expands the definition of “family member” as it pertains to employees taking time away from work to care for someone else, and also outlines additional circumstances under which an employee can take time away from work. Questions five and six (below) provide additional details.

Additionally, there are some Brown employees who are not eligible for sick time under Brown’s policy who are eligible for time away under Sick and Safe Leave. These include regular and fixed-term employees who work less than 50 percent time, as well as undergraduate and graduate student workers and seasonal and intermittent employees.

Seasonal and intermittent employees include employees who are on call, without a regular or predictable schedule; employees who work a part-time schedule on an as-needed basis for specialized work; employees who will work less than six months on a one-time or annually recurring basis; or employees who work 12 hours per week or less.

Under the definitions of the new law, a family member is a child, parent, spouse, mother-in-law, fatherin-law, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, sibling, care recipient or member of the employee’s household.

For both exempt and non-exempt positions, the amount of sick time a regular or fixed-term employee working 50 percent time or more can accrue will not increase due to this new law. However, an employee may designate sick time as Sick and Safe Leave for some circumstances not included in Brown’s Sick Time policy. In addition to using Sick and Safe Leave to take time away from work for an injury or illness, employees can take Sick and Safe Leave should they experience domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. It can also be used for the care of an eligible family member who is sick or has been injured — or has experienced domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.

  • Regular or fixed-term employees who work more than 50 percent time are allowed up to 3 work days annually (or the equivalent number of hours) to use as Sick and Safe Leave time.
  • Regular or fixed-term employees who work less than 50 percent time are allowed up to 3 hours.
  • Seasonal and intermittent employees are allowed up to 7 hours.
  • Undergraduate and graduate student workers are allowed up to 6 hours.

Sick and Safe Leave for student employees

Regular and fixed-term employees working 50 percent time or more who have worked at Brown for more than 90 days, graduate and undergraduate student workers can use this designation effective immediately.

Seasonal and intermittent employees are eligible 150 days after their date of hire.

Staff can designate time off as Sick and Safe Leave while requesting time away in Workday. No further action is required. Because faculty do not use Workday to record sick time, they should follow their department's policy for reporting sick time to designate Sick and Safe Leave time.

For more specifics on how to designate Sick and Safe Leave as a student employee, including for students compensated through stipends, please see the Student Employees page.

No. Employees requesting Sick and Safe Leave do not need to provide documentation to support an absence that meets the eligibility, and they do not need to explain their reason for requesting Sick and Safe Leave.

Use of time under the Sick and Safe Leave Act itself does not create any reporting requirements, including under Title IX or Clery Act regulations. However, if in the course of requesting Sick and Safe Leave, an employee voluntarily discloses to a supervisor that they have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, the supervisor must notify Brown’s Title IX and Gender Equity Office.

Contact the Title IX and Gender Equity Office at 401-863-2386 or titleixoffice@brown.edu for information regarding Title IX and Clery reporting, as well as resources and support related to sexual violence and other forms of gender based-discrimination.

Questions?

Email the Benefits Office at benefits_office@brown.edu or contact the Assistant Director of Compliance and Data Integrity: