Updates to Parental Leave
Updates to Parental Leave Heading link
Dear UIC HR Advisory Council and Practice Group,
Parental Leave policy changes have been updated on the System HR website, which are effective August 16, 2023. As a reminder, parental leave grants eligible employees up to six (6) weeks of paid leave following the birth of a child, or upon the initial placement or legal adoption of a child under age 18. Additionally, parental leave is automatically counted toward the 12-week Family and Medical Leave (FML) entitlement for eligible employees.
Eligible employees are now able to receive six weeks of parental leave upon hire. Previously, employees needed to be employed six months before they were eligible. Additionally, parental leave may be taken in full or intermittently with departmental approval within twelve months of the first date of leave.
Please note the changes for parental leave will go into effect on August 16, 2023. Employees who are not eligible for leave (they have been here less than 6 months) may be granted the 6 weeks leave if birth or adoption of child occurs on August 1, 2023 or later. This will provide some paid leave for those employees who expect to need leave after August 16 but birth/adoption occurs earlier than anticipated. For those situations, the employee will receive the balance of available parental leave (they will not receive more than 6 weeks total).
An employee may request parental leave by submitting the University of Illinois Leave Application (for Family and Medical Leave/Parental Leave/Unpaid Family Bereavement Leave) to the unit/college HR representative. Once eligibility for the leave is determined, the leave may be approved. Please see the Parental Resource Guide for processing steps. Additionally, there is a template letter posted at https://hr.uic.edu/hr-staff-managers/resources/template-letters/ that may be used when approving the leave.
Questions may be directed to:
Chicago: UIC Human Resources uichrleaves@uillinois.edu
UI Hospital and Clinics (UI Health) uihloa@uic.edu
System Office: System Human Resource Services erhr@uillinois.edu