Annual Paid Sickness Leave

The setup of the annual sickness allowance is very similar to the setup of paid leave allowance. It involves:

• Setting up Annual Paid Sickness Leave Parameters
• Setting up Paid Sickness Leave Generation Rules
• Setting up Special Rules for Paid Sickness Leave Subtypes

Setting up Annual Paid Sickness Leave Parameters

To edit the Annual Paid Sickness Leave parameters, click the Edit Settings link in the Annual Paid Sickness Leave section settings box.

Fill in the form that opens with the following information:

1. In the Accrual Period field, select when the sickness allowance will be granted. The following options are available:
   • Yearly: all the allowance days or hours will be generated at the beginning of the company year
     Note

     Company year start date is set up under Settings > Settings and Configuration  > General  > Company Settings > Basic tab > Year Start Date.
   • Monthly Start: the allowance will be accrued monthly and granted at the beginning of the month. For example, the employee’s annual allowance is 12 days and the company year starts on January 1. On January 1, the employee’s sickness allowance will be 1 day, on February 1 – 2 days and so on
   • Monthly End: the allowance will be accrued monthly and granted at the end of the month. If the employee’s annual allowance is 12 days and the company year starts on January 1, then on Jan 31 the employee’s vacation allowance will be 1 day, on February 28 (or 29) 2 days and so on
   • Bi-Weekly Start: the allowance will be accrued every 14 days and granted at the beginning of the two-week period
   • Bi-Weekly End: the allowance will be accrued every 14 days and will be granted at the end of the two-week period
   • Daily: the allowance will be accrued and granted every day
   • Monthly Start (12 Periods):  the allowance will be accrued monthly and will be granted at the beginning of the month (including the month that has already started). In contrast to the Monthly Start accrual method, this method does not take into account calendar or working days of each month and, therefore, the accrued allowance will be fixed each month (1/12 of the yearly accrual). However, a fixed amount will be accrued each month on condition that the employee worked all days during every month for which allowance has been calculated. If the employee didn't work all days during a certain month, for that month only a portion of allowance will be accrued on the basis of the number of worked working/calendar days (for other months, a fixed allowance number will be still accrued).
     
     Note

     For the Monthly Start (12 Periods) and Monthly End (12 Periods) methods, a fixed amount will be accrued each month on condition that the employee worked all days during every month for which allowance has been calculated. If the employee didn't work all days during a certain month, for that month only a portion of allowance will be accrued on the basis of the number of worked working/calendar days (for other months, a fixed allowance number will be still accrued). Factors (any or a combination) that may affect the number of working days per month and split the calculation:

      - The Calculate Annual Leave Based On Employment History is enabled and, for example, a work pattern was changed in the middle of a month. The Calculate Annual Leave Based On Employment History setting is not available by default and is added upon customer's request by the implementation engineer. Also, if this setting enabled, and the country and/or location is changed in the employment history, the annual paid leave will be recalculated according to the rules in the new country/location.
     - The Do Not Accrue Allowance During Unpaid Leave setting is enabled and the employee took unpaid during a certain month(s)
     - A change in the allowance calculation rules
     - Employee's employment or service date as later than the start of the accrual period (e.g. the employee was employed in the middle of a month
     - The employee termination (e.g. the employee was terminated in the middle of a month, and for that month only a portion of allowance will be calculated)

   • Monthly End (12 Periods):  the allowance will be accrued monthly and granted at the end of the month (including the month that has just ended). In contrast to the Monthly End accrual method, this method does not take into account calendar or working days of each month and, therefore, the accrued allowance will be fixed each month (1/12 of the yearly accrual). However, a fixed amount will be accrued each month on condition that the employee worked all days during every month for which allowance has been calculated. If the employee didn't work all days during a certain month, for that month only a portion of allowance will be accrued on the basis of the number of worked working/calendar days (for other months, a fixed allowance number will be still accrued).
     
     Note

      - In cases where Monthly End or Bi-Weekly End accrual methods are used, the system will generate the vacation allowance for the last accrual period of the vacation year at the beginning of the period, so that employees can use up their allowance before the vacation year ends.
     - For details on the allowance generation based on different accrual methods, please refer to Allowance Generation Formulas and Examples.
2. Use the Accrual From field to define whether the employees’ allowance will be generated based on the company year or based on the employment date. The following options are available:
   • Company Year Start Date: all employees who are assigned this absence plan will have the same accrual year, which starts on the company Year Start Date (defined under Settings > Settings and Configuration  > General  > Company Settings > Basic tab > Year Start Date) and lasts for 12 months. The employee's allowance will be generated on the first date of the company year and on the last date of the company year the number of unused days regulated by the Carried Over Max Units setting will be carried over to the next year. If this scheme is used, the number of days is prorated in relation to the employment date.
     For example:
     • the company year is January 1 – December 31
     • the sickness allowance is 24 days
     • the Accrual Method is Yearly
     • an employee has joined the company on July 1
     Under these conditions, the new employee will be entitled to 12 paid sickness leave days before the end of the company year and a new allowance of 24 days will be generated at the beginning of the next accrual period, i.e. on January 1.
   • Employment Date: each employee has his or her own accrual year that starts on the employment date and lasts for 12 months, after which a new allowance is generated and unused days are carried over
   • Service Date: each employee has his or her own accrual year that starts on the service date. The service date is manually specified by HR for each employee. This can be done in the Service Date field of the employee card. The service date can be the end of probation period or any other date starting from which the employee is entitled to accruing the annual allowance.
3. Use the Spending Year Shift Months field in case the company policy states that the sickness allowance spending period is shifted in relation to the accrual period start date. For example, if the company year starts on January 1 and the vacation allowance accrual starts on this date, but the accumulated vacation allowance can be used only starting from May 1, set the Spending Year Shift Months field value to 4.
4. Use the Carried Over Max Units field to set the maximum number of unused days or hours that can be carried over to the following vacation period.
5. If carried over days or hours are only valid for a limited period, use the Carried Over Expiration Months field to set the expiration period in months.
6. Select the Carried Over Auto Approval check box to have the system approve the carried over days/hours automatically. If the checkbox is blank, the carried overs have to be manually approved by managers or HR.
7. Select the Allow Overbooking check box if employees are allowed to book more days or hours than their allowance. In case overbooking is allowed, the number of allowance days will become negative and the overused days will be deducted from the next year’s allowance.
8. Use the Units drop-down list to select whether the allowance is generated and tracked in days or hours.
9. Use the Period Calculation Type drop-down list to select whether the absence time in the sickness requests is to be calculated based on calendar days or working days.
   
   Note

   The Period Calculation Type setting must correlate with the Absence Allowance Accrual Type setting in the Time & Attendance settings (Settings > Settings and Configuration > Time & Attendance, the Advanced tab). Absence Allowance Accrual Type defines how the absence allowance is generated and written off - based on working days or calendar days. If allowance is accrued and written off based on working days, the sickness request time must be calculated based on working days as well. If calendar days are selected as a basis for allowance accrual, Calendar Days must be selected for the Period Calculation Type, correspondingly.
   
   If the Period Calculation Type is set to Calendar Days, the days of the company holidays will be still excluded when calculating sick leave duration. To include the days of company holidays into the calculated duration, select Sick Leave in the Ignore Company Holidays for Absence Types field of the Advanced tab under Settings > Settings and Configuration > Time & Attendance.
   
10. Click Save.

The next section of the annual paid sickness leave setup is regular paid sickness leave calculation rules, i.e. the rules applied by default.

Setting up Paid Sickness Leave Generation Rules

To add a new rule for paid sickness leave allowance generation click the Add Sickness Leave Calculation Rule button.

Fill in the form that opens with the following data:

1. Specify the number of paid leave days/hours that will be accrued according to this rule in the Number of Days or Hours field.
2. Specify the start of the age or seniority range to which this rule will be applicable in the Range Start field.
3. Specify the end of the age or seniority range to which this rule will be applicable in the Range End field.
4. Choose the basis for the range in the Calculation Type field. There are two options available:
   • Age: the allowances will be generated based on the employee's age
   • Seniority: the allowances will be generated based on the number of years the employee works in the company.
5. Click Save to create the rule.

To edit a rule, click the Edit link next to the rule in the rules table. 

The last section is the Special Rules section.

Setting up Special Rules for Paid Sickness Leave Subtypes

Special rules define how absence allowance is accrued for custom absence subtypes, in this case – for custom paid sick leave subtypes. Allowance accrued by special rules is separate from the general absence allowances. This means that it is not displayed on the My Absences page, and booking an absence with a custom absence subtype will subtract absence allowance from the accrued allowance granted by the related special rule, and not from the general allowance, except the case when the employee overbooks the absence with the custom absence subtype (books more than the maximum allowed number of days/hours accrued by the special rule) – in this case the number of days/hours that the employee overbooks will be subtracted from the general accrued allowance.

To learn how to create custom absence subtypes, refer to the Absence Subtypes topic.

The Special Rules table is filled in automatically with the vacation subtypes from the Vacation Types list. The subtypes, for which the rules have not yet been created, have the Create Rule link next to them and the existing rules have the Edit link. Be aware that editing a special rule will not affect absence allowances that have already been accrued by the existing rule – the changes will take effect for the next period/case.

To create a rule for a sickness subtype click the Create Rule link next to it.

Fill in the form that opens with the following information:

1. Specify the number of days/hours the employee can have for this custom vacation subtype in the Number of Units field.
2. Specify the rule type for this vacation subtype generation in the Rule Type field. The following options are available:
   • Per Case: the days/hours for this vacation type are accrued on the per case basis, i.e. only once when this an absence with this custom absence subtype is registered and approved.
   • Per Year: the days/hours for this custom absence subtype can be used every year.
3. Select the Allow Overbooking check box in case the employees are allowed to book more days or hours than the allowance for this vacation type. Any number of days/hours that they overbook (book more days/hours than the number specified in the Number of Units field) will be subtracted from the general allowances.
   
   Note

   For example, an employee has vacation allowance of 20 days per year (general allowance) and there is a special rule that 2 days can be taken per year for the Medical Appointment custom absence subtype. If the employee registers a 10 days with the Medical Appointment custom absence subtype, 2 days (accrued by the special rule) with be taken from the special rule absence allowance and 8 days (overbooked) will be taken from the general allowance, and, as a result, the employee will have 12 days of vacation (general allowance) available and 0 days available (with the Per Year special rule type) for this Medical Appointment custom absence subtype. With the Per Case special rule type, 2 days would be available for this Medical Appointment custom absence subtype for the next absence case.
4. Click Save.

After setting up annual paid sickness leave allowance proceed to the Annual Other Absences setup section.