Leaves other than sabbaticals

Sick leave: 180 calendar days. Periods longer than 5 days may require supporting medical documentation. We recommend working with an Occupational Health Nurse on your documentation. 

Long-term disability: Up to 2 years. To be eligible, you must be unable to perform your job and "totally disabled" as per an objective medial opinion. 

For more informaton, see the Employee Benefits Program booklet and the Disability Management Guide (PDF).

Waterloo supplements Employment Insurance for eligible pregnancy and parental leaves. The following information applies to employees who began one of these leaves before April 6. If your leave began after April 6, please see our new page on pregnancy and parental leaves. 

Pregnancy/parental leave for birth parents

• UW provides 6 weeks of birth leave at 100% salary plus 17 weeks at 95% of your salary (a mix of pregnancy/parental covered by Employment Insurance plus UW top-up).

• You can take up to 78 weeks of job-protected leave.

Parental leave (including adoption) for non-birth parents:

• 10 days of paid leave OR 17 weeks of parental leave at 95% of your salary (EI + UW top-up)

• Parental leave and EI can continue after your top-up runs out, up to 69 weeks shared between parents (35 weeks of EI).

Employment Insurance for parental leaves

• EI is split between parents.

• These limits include the time in your top-up period.
• You can take a combined total of 40 weeks of EI @ 55% of your salary (max. 35 weeks per person).
• Or up to 69 weeks @ 33% of your salary (max. 61 weeks per person).

During a parental leave

• You still accrue sabbatical credit (i.e., it doesn't delay your sabbatical).
• Your pension contributions continue during the UW top-up period. You can opt out after that period, but think carefully about that, as as that will reduce your pension accrual. 
• Your graduate students must be assigned an interim supervisor because you are not obligated to fulfill any supervision duties. However, no one can stop you from meeting with your grad students if you choose to do so.

Returning to work

• You may be able to arrange a temporary reduced workload after your leave.
• Your annual teaching load is "reduced in proportion to the length of each leave” (see section 3 of Policy 14). We suggest rounding up to a whole number. For example: A 23-week leave = reduction of 23/52 = 44% of your annual teaching load
  • For an annual load of 5 courses, the reduction is 2.21 courses (round up to 3)
  • For an annual load of 3 courses, the reduction is 1.33 courses (round up to 2)
• Policy 14 also says you shouldn't be required to teach in more than two of three terms following a parental leave, though an employment contract that explicitly states that you teach in all three terms takes precedent over the policy. The actual sequence of teaching terms following your leave is worked out with your chair and/or dean.

For more information, see Policy 14 – Pregnancy and Parental Leaves (including adoption), and the Return to Work, the Canadian government's page on Employment Insurance maternity and parental benefits, and Ontario's guide to the Employment Standards Act.

Unpaid leave: Faculty can take up to 12 months of unpaid leave. See Policy 3, section 4.

Self-funded leave: From 6 to 12 months; funded through deferred salary. You have to request this three years in advance. See types of absences and leaves on the HR website for more information.

Bereavement leave: The UW bereavement leave guideline provides 1–4 paid days. The Employment Standards Act provides 2 days, unpaid.

Family Responsibility leave: The UW emergency leave guideline provides 3 paid days. The Employment Standards Act provides 3 days, unpaid.

UW has no compassionate care leaves. These are unpaid, job-protected leaves under the Employment Standards Act. 

• Family caregiver leave: 8 weeks per calendar year per specified family member.

• Family medical leave: 28 weeks unpaid; employment insurance (EI) covers up to 26 weeks.

• Critical illness leave:  37 weeks in relation to a critically ill minor child, or 17 weeks in relation to a critically ill adult.

These maximums are per 52-week period. You might be eligible for employment insurance for family medical and critical illness leaves. There are also organ donor, child death, and domestic violence leaves available under the Employment Standards Act.

It's not quite a leave, but Policy 59 allows employees to reduce their workload as low as 50% of full-time, with salary adjusted proportionately. Depending on your circumstances, this might be a better option for you than a leave.

Temporary reduced workload

• Up to 2 years, extended to a maximum of 4 years
• After that: fractional-load appointment

Reduced workload to retirement

• Up to 17 years, or to your 71st birthday
• You need to be at least 45 years old with 10 years of uninterrupted regular full-time service.
• You have to set your retirement date when this starts, but you can always retire earlier than that date.

While your workload is reduced, your sabbatical credit accrues proportionately. Your pension and pension contributions remain based on your full-time salary.

For more information, see Policy 59 – Reduced Workload to Retirement.

• 1 month for the first ten years
• 1 month + 1 week as of your 11th year at UW (or age 55)

Carrying vacation time forward

• If you teach every term, you can can carry forward two weeks, for one year or, for lecturers, until you have a non-teaching term
• All faculty can carry forward some vacation time in "exceptional circumstances"

For more information, see the Memorandum of Agreement, Section 11.2.