The UC Office of the President, or UCOP, enacted a series of temporary emergency options that include 14 paid administrative days for employees who are quarantined or have to care for a family member diagnosed with COVID-19, colloquially known as the coronavirus.

This guidance provides temporary emergency options to UC system employees who have exhausted their accrued sick and vacation leaves, according to UCOP spokesperson Stett Holbrook. Before, UC system employees would have had to use their accrued sick and vacation leave to care for both themselves and ill family members. The emergency policy is part of a larger conversation regarding paid family leave coverage in the UC system.

“This is really, really positive, but not the same kind of coverage that other employees across California would have; other employees would have six weeks of paid leave under the California Disability Act,” said UC Berkeley School of Law social media manager Rachel DeLetto. “It’s great that they’re taking swift action, but it’s still not the same as if we were eligible for the same coverage.”

When DeLetto went on maternity leave, she learned that UC system employees do not have access to paid family leave to bond with a new child or care for an ill or injured family member. Meanwhile, California has led the nation in providing paid family leave to millions of workers since 2004.

All employees of privately held organizations or companies in California, such as Stanford University, are part of the State Disability Insurance, or SDI, program. The Paid Family Leave program is a component of this and provides six weeks of partially paid leave for employees who take time off to bond with a new child or care for an ill family member.

While public employees are not covered under SDI provisions, several state employee bargaining units have opted into the program. Since the UC system is its own legal entity under the California Constitution, it has jurisdiction over its paid family leave benefits. As such, the UC system currently relies on Basic Disability, which provides a maximum of $800 a month, for employees that must take time off to recover from the effects of childbirth.

“If you have an elderly parent that needs care, staff may be able to take unpaid (Family and Medical Leave Act/California Family Rights Act) leave, but staff don’t get paid leave unless they substitute unpaid leave with accrued vacation, sick time or paid time off,” said UC Berkeley School of Law professor Catherine Albiston. “If you’re a newer employee, you might not have accrued much sick time or vacation yet.”

The UC system’s constitutionally separate status, however, does not prevent it from providing paid family leave such as those provided in SDI provisions. DeLetto added that there were no “insurmountable legal or legislative barriers” to opting into the SDI program.

The use of the SDI program would, in fact, save UC system money by shifting the administration and execution of leave requests and payments to the state, according to a report submitted to the UC Council of Chancellors. Under this program, employees would see a payroll deduction. The current deduction, as specified by the state, is 1% on wages up to $118,371.

Upon returning from maternity leave, DeLetto with her colleagues formed a working group that developed a proposal for equitable and inclusive paid family leave. Chancellor Carol Christ took the proposal to the UC Council of Chancellors in December 2019. It was met with unanimous approval. Today, a UCOP-appointed task force works on the issue.

“We’re delighted UCOP is considering this now,” Albiston said. “This particular health crisis is really pointing out the need for this benefit.”