County of Los Angeles Department of Human Resources Long Term Leave Absence Report Module I

1. County of Los Angeles Department of Human Resources Long Term Leave Absence Report Module I February 28, 2009 Long Term Leave Management Program Next

2. Introduction Welcome to the County of Los Angeles online training for “Long Term Leave (LTL) Absence Report.” This training consists of………… separate modules covering the basics in completing the report, a systematic approach in reconciling data, and the use of the LTL Absence Report as a management tool. The training is designed to be self-paced. Throughout each module of this training, you will be introduced to specific concepts followed by exercises to help you apply the concept introduced. We recommend that you complete the first modules prior to working on the actual report at work. If you choose to exit the program before completion, your information will be saved and bookmarked. You will be able to return to the training at a later time. You may also repeat these modules as many times as needed. When you are ready to start, please click on the “Next” button to begin Module I. Next

3. Learning Objectives Module I Overview In this module, you will learn the followings: Lesson 1: Identify data that met the criteria of the report Lesson 2: Categorize the types of data for placement in the Report Lesson 3: Use CWTAPPS Leave Code System to reflect the nature of long- term leave for each employee Lesson 4: Provide meaningful statements for the “Comment” section of the report for your management review Next

4. Lesson 1: Identification of Data When an employee’s employment condition meets one of the following criterion, the employee’s leave must be recorded in the Long Term Leave Management (LTL) Absence Report. These criteria are: • When the duration of acontinuousleave reached 6 months or 180 days from the first day of leave. • When a Long Term Leave employee resumes leave status after returning to work for less than 30 days Next

5. An employee has been taking intermittent leave under Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA -12 weeks,) California Pregnancy Leave Act (CPLA -16 weeks,) and California Pregnancy Family Act (CPFA – 12 Weeks with Benefits) for pregnancy related disability and bonding with her child since January 1, 2008. As of December 1, 2008, she was still on Leave. Should this employee be included in the LTL Absence Report? Exercises Scenario 1 • Yes • No • Not sufficient information to determine • Answer: B. • Even though a combined leave taken under all three Acts may exceed 6 months or 180 days. Intermittent Leave is not considered as “continuous leave”. Next

6. Scenario 2 M. May took a leave of absence on May 4, 2008 under FMLA for 12 weeks, extended her leave for an additional four (4 weeks) under CPLA for pregnancy related disability. Then immediately took a leave of absence under CFRA for bonding with her child. As of November 15, 2008 she was still on leave. Should this employee be included in the December 15, 2008 report? • Yes • No • Not sufficient information to determine • Answer: A • Although the leave was taken under three different laws, the leave was continuous and exceeded 6 months/180 days from the very first day she took the leave on May 4, 2008. Next

7. Scenario 3: An employee exhausted both her FMLA and CPLA leave. She is now on the first week of CFRA. Does she meet the LTL criteria to be included in the report? • Yes • No • Not sufficient information to determine • Answer: B. • FMLA and CPLA are meant to run concurrently if an employee was disabled by the pregnancy. The maximum leave under FMLA is 12 weeks, and the maximum for CPLA is 16 weeks. When the two types of Leave are ran concurrently, the maximum duration of leave an employee is eligible for is 16 weeks. Given that she is on the first week of her CFRA leave, she has only accumulated 17 weeks or 119 days of continuous leave. (Ref. Interpretive Manual) Next

8. Scenario 4 Employees has been on approved Educational Leave since September of 2006. As of September 2008, he was still on leave. Should this employee be included in the October 15, 2008 LTL Absence Report? • Yes • No • Not sufficient information to determine • Answer: A • The criteria for “Long Term Leave” is all inclusive regardless of the types of leave. This employee met both the “continuous” and “180 days” criteria. Next

9. Scenario 5 An employee was on Leave for 190 days prior to him starting his temporary light duty assignment on October 15, 2008. In November 15, 2008 report, you were to report all active cases for the month of October, should this employee be listed as an active case in the November 15th report? • Yes • No • Not sufficient information to determine • Answer: B • On the last day of October, this employee has not returned to work for more than 30 days. This employee should remained as an Active Cases until after the 30 days has passed. Next

10. Scenario 6: An employee began his temporary work hardening assignment on April 1, 2008 after 11 weeks of continuous leave. Then, the employee resumed and remained on leave status since May 2, 2008. Should this employee be included in June 15, 2008 report? • Yes • No • Not sufficient information to determine • Answer: B • This employee has not met the 6 months/180 days criteria before he returned to work on work hardening assignment. He should not be listed at all. Next

11. In order to understand how the data you gathered should be grouped and entered into the Long Term Leave Absence Report, let’s take a look at the Content and the Structure of the report itself. Lesson 2: Categorizing Your Data Next Next

12. Contents of the Report As you can see from the title of the report, it says “August 15, 2008 LTL Absence Report for the month of July, 2008. This means that the report was dated for August 15, 2008 submission, and reports activity data only for the month immediately preceding the date of the report. Next

13. Exercises For each of the condition stated in the following two scenarios, please indicate which of the report should the employee be listed. • Employee met the 6 months/180 days criteria on Nov. 1, 2008. • October 15, 2008 • November 15, 2008 • December 15, 2008 Answer: December 15, 2008 report • Employee met the 6 months/180 days criteria on Oct. 15, 2008 • October 15, 2008 • November 15, 2008 • December 15, 2008 Answer: November 15, 2008 report Next

14. Now lets go to the first section of the report. This section is labeled as “ACTIVE CASES ….” Active Cases in this section are active cases carried over from last month. For example, using the months and dates of the following illustration, cases under the “Active Cases in July 2008” are active cases from June that remained to be active in July. Next

15. The second section of the report is labeled as “New Cases in…..,” and includes data that meet one of the following criteria: Cases that reached the 6 months/180 days criteria in the reporting month Cases that exceeded the 6 months/180 days criteria but were never reported in earlier reports. Note: Think of “New” as in any additional active cases that were not reported in prior reports. Next

16. The last section of the Report, the “Processed/Cleared Cases” section is where you entered the following cases: • Cases that met the 6 Months/180 days criteria and were cleared during the reporting month” • Cases that met the 6 Months/180 days criteria and were cleared in other months but was never reported. • Cases that should not have been reported in prior months as active but was inadvertently listed in previous reports. Next

17. Exercises For each of the following scenarios, please click the button where you believe the data should be placed. • An employee was reported in April 15, 2008 report as having been on leave for 2,658 days. However, you just discovered that the employee retired on March 24, 2008. Where should this employee be placed in the May 15, 2008 report? • Active Cases Section • New Cases Section • Processed/Cleared Cases Section • Should not be included in the report • A & C • Answer: C Next

18. 2. Ms. ML accumulated 183 days of Leave on the last day of April. However, the comment in the report indicates that the employee was placed on work hardening assignment on April 7, 2008. If you were to correct this listing, where would you place this employee in the May 15, 2008 report? • Active Cases Section • New Cases Section • Processed/Cleared Cases in April Section • Should not be included in the report Answer: C Based on the comment, the actual duration of Ms. ML’s leave should be 183 days minus 23 days. This means that Ms. MM only had 160 days before she returned to work. She did not meet the LTL criteria to be included in any LTL Absence Report. However, since she was already included in the previous report, we can only report it as a drop under the “Processed/Cleared” section and note it as an “Over-reported” case. Next

19. 3. As of April 15, 2008, Employee X has been out for 278 days but was never reported in any report. Where should this employee be placed in the May 15, 2008 report? • Active Cases Section • New Cases Section • Processed/Cleared Cases in April Section • Should not be included in the report Answer: B As long as an employee meets the Long Term Leave criteria and has never been included in any LTL Absence Report, the employee should be listed as a new case. Next

20. 4. An employee has been on leave for 208 days as of April 30, 2008, should this employee be listed in the “New Cases” section or in the “Active Cases” section? • Active Cases Section • New Cases Section • Processed/Cleared Cases in April Section • Should not be included in the report Answer: B To answer this question, one must know this employee’s duration of the leave on March 31, 2008. On March 31, 2008, this employee has a total of 178 days (208-30 =178) of leave, making him or her not eligible to be listed in the April 15, 2008 report. However, she met the 180 days criteria on April 2, 2008 as a new case in the May 15, 2008 report. Next

21. 5. An employee retired on April 30, 2008 after taking a leave of absence for 988 days. However, he was never listed in any of the LTL Absence Report. Where should this employee be placed in the May 15, 2008 report? • Active Cases Section • New Cases Section • Processed/Cleared Cases in April Section • Should not be included in the report • B & C Answer: E In order to credit a drop or decrease from the LTL employee pool, the individual must have been a member of the pool. If he/she was never existed in his pool of employees, there is nothing for the department to drop. Therefore, to credit this drop, we must include him/her in the LTL employee pool by adding his/her name as a new case so he/she can be listed under the “Processed/Cleared Cases” section. Next

22. 6. Employee has been on leave for 4020 days, and comments in the report indicate that the employee will retire on May 31, 2008. What section of the June 15, 2008 report should this employee be listed? • Active Cases Section • New Cases Section • Processed/Cleared Cases in April Section • Should not be included in the report Answer: A Given that employees can change their mind at any time, unless the comment indicates that “the employee retired on May 15, 2008,” the employee should remain in the “Active Cases” section. Next

23. 7. Employee has been on leave for 3680 days, returned to work on a transitional assignment for 35 days and resumed leave on April 15, 2008. • Active Cases Section • New Cases Section • Processed/Cleared Cases in April Section • Should not be included in the report Answer: B Since this employee’s name was dropped off in previous report, she has to be added back as a New case with the originalLeave Start Date in order for the Department to continue to monitor the case. If a New Start Date was used, the employee will not be listed in the report until 6 months later. By that time, this employee would have accumulated 3860 days of leave where the case should have been re-evaluated upon employee resuming her leave. Next

24. The information needed to complete the fields under each of the column Headings shown below can be obtained from the County’s Countywide Timekeeping And Payroll Personnel System. The information for “Leave Type Code” can be found on the “JLVE” screen of the CWTAPP system. In the event that your Department is using Earning or Pay Codes for this field, we have provided a conversion table on the next page for you to covert them into CWTAPPS Leave codes. Lesson 3: The Coding System Next

25. Codes Conversion Table Next

26. Codes Conversion Table (cont’n) Next

27. Lesson 4: The Comment Section In this lesson, we are going to talk about what should be stated in the “Comment” section. A well stated comment will assist you and your manager to take prompt and decisive action to manage each case. An inadequate comment may delay your management from taking necessary action to prevent litigation and other financial losses. Next

28. Key Questions to Ask The only way one can assess whether the comments stated are sufficient to serve the purpose is to ask a number of questions. • Does the comment indicates where the employee was in the Return-to- Work process outlined in the CEO Return- to -work procedural manual, and does it indicate when the last action took place? • Does the comment clearly states what obstacle(s) was preventing the Return-to-Work process from moving forward? • Does the comment indicates what action/measures were attempted by the Department to remove the obstacles, but failed? Note: Your ANSWER TO THESE QUESTIONS would help your manager determines which of these cases needs his/her immediate attention, and what type of intervention is needed to take the case to the next level. Next

29. In the next 3 pages, we have provided a list of comments you may use to communicate to your management the necessary information to determine when to intervene and what action needed to take place to move the case forward. However, the comments listed are not meant to be exhaustive. There may be other circumstances that may have prevented the employee from returning to work. There may also be times where you would need to use a combination of these comments to reflect the status of the case. The best way in determining what comments should be included in this section is to ask if you can determine what action to take to move the case forward after reading the comments. Next

30. Sample Comments/Answers • Where is the employee in the Return-to-Work process and When did the last action took place? Examples: • TTD from date to date, Interactive Meeting (IM) scheduled for date • Employee approved for LTD from date to date, employee health condition prevent IM to take place • Employee acquiring new Medical Certificate for review by TPA • First/Second/Third IPM scheduled for date • First/Second/Third IPM held date/outcome • Initiated search of temporary work hardening assignments on date • In consultation with County Counsel to resolve problem since date/Outcome • Medical release process in progress, approval requested on date • Requested Disability Retirement on date, initiated placement attempt on date • Referred to Performance Management on date, progress monitored by responsible unit/division • Skelly meeting scheduled for date by Employee Relations/Performance Management Unit • Intent to discharge/medical separation letter sent on date • Discharge/ Medical release letter sent on date Next

31. What was the obstacle that prevented the Return-to-Work process from moving forward? Examples: • Unable to locate employee, what and frequency of attempts made, last attempt made on date • Employeenon-responsive to IMP meeting requests, last contact made on date • Waiting for employee medical certificate, request made on date • Waiting for AME report of date • Pending on AME scheduled for date • Pending on TPA/QME scheduled for date • Employee missed scheduled Interactive Meeting numberof times, dates • Unable to accommodate Employee’s work restriction in his/her own class, last attempt made on date • Employee appealing medical evaluations, Hearings/AME/QME scheduled for date • Employee discontinued job search on date • Physician will not release employee to return-to-work, detail job description provided to physician on date • Employee met the Social Security definition of permanently disabled or Permanent & Stationary ( %) as of Date by , initiated job search/disability retirement/medical separation on date • Employee is scheduled for C (Compromise) and R (Release), meeting/tentative resignation date • Employee approved for Long Term Disability till retirement age as of date. Pending on LACERA approval. Next

32. What action was taken to remove these obstacles? What was the outcome? Examples: • Provided physician job description with duty and task statements to explore work hardening assignments on date • WAY (Where are you/) letter sent on date • Order to Work letter sent on date • Return to Work Notice sent on date • Deemed Resignation Letter sent on date • Initiated Disability Retirement process on behalf of the employee on date • Scheduled IPM to discuss medical separation with employee on date • Initiated Medical Separation process on date • Working with LACERA in placing employee on lower level jobs since date • Referred the case to Performance Management operation on date • Referred the case for Interdepartmental Job Placement on date • Initiated processes for retirement/resignation/return-to- work/discharged/Out of Service/deceased on date Next

33. Exercises Before you begin answering the following questions, print a copy of the three questions described at the beginning of the lesson. Then review the stated comments against these three questions to determine if the comments have sufficient information to decide on an action to move the case forward. Select the answer that reflects your assessment. 1. Employee has been on leave for 5 years, andholds an Unclassified position. The employee may be removed at any time at the discretion of the appointing authority, with or without cause. Per County Code 2.07.010. • Yes • No Answer: B County Code 2.07.10 only speaks to the nature (at-will) of the position, it does not reveal the reason (s) that substantiated the leave. Based on the comment, it is impossible to know what transpired in the last 5 years and why the employee has not returned to work. Next

34. 2. Not permanent and stationary since Oct 1, 2001. • Yes • No Answer: B This comment suggests the employee was disabled by an illness or a condition for 7 years. Yet, the comment indicates that the condition is not permanent. More importantly, there was no information pertaining to what has transpired in the last 7 years. Nor does the comment reveal any information as to the obstacle that prevented the employee from returning to work. Next

35. 3. IA 76 BENEFITS/APPR. LTD 4/2/08 ( September 15, 2008 report) • Yes • No Answer: B This comment only informed the reader that the employee was receiving either worker’s compensation or Long Term Disability benefits. The comment does not reveal what had transpired since 4/2/08 to August 2008. It is also unclear as to whether the data 4/2/08 is the ending date of the benefits period or the date when benefits were approved. Next

36. 4. Order to report to work 5/08 • Yes • No Answer: A Sufficient to alert management to pay close attention to initiate discharge for job abandonment Next

37. 5. Pending C&R of civil case • Yes • No Answer: B C& R (Compromise & Release) takes ~ 2 months, and it’s a settlement process not a civil case in the courts. By stating it as a civil case may misled management into thinking that there will years of waiting before anything can be done. The comment also does not provide the date of C& R and tentative resignation date for the purpose of planning the next step. Next

38. 6. Pending litigation OAAC - ee declined offer • Yes • No Answer: B Comment should clearly state the type of offer made. Is it a settlement agreement or a valid job offer? If it is a settlement, we are looking at a lawsuit down the road. If it is a valid job offer, the next step is termination of benefits and “order to work” process.Pending litigation should not stop the Return-to-work process unless advised by County Counsel. If that is the case, it should be stated in the comment. Next

39. 7. TTD, requested for medical review January 10, 2009 • Yes • No Answer: B Comment should clearly state whether it is an AME or QME review. If it is an AME, the minimal waiting period can be a year, nothing can be done until it took place. QME can take place within a couple months. Next

40. 8. Pending AME review on May 9, 2009 • Yes • No Answer: A Next

41. 9. TTD thru 6/08 • Yes • No Answer: B Needs additional information on what had transpired since the employee was approved for TTD to expedite returning the employee back to work. The purpose of the Return to Work program is to expedite return of employees on TTD. Comment needs to address the three questions. Next

42. 10. EE TTD to 10/30/08; Med Cert letter 11/21/08; IPM scheduled for 1/6/09 • Yes • No Answer: A Next

43. 11. Medical Leave • Yes • No Answer: B By completing the Leave Type/Code, it would have already indicated that this employee was on Medical Leave. The Comment section needs to address what has taken place and the steps that would follow to expedite return of the employee to work. Next

44. 12. LTD to 6/09, ee is 68 • Yes • No Answer: B Due to the retirement age and the county’s LTD rules, the date when the LTD was approved is significant in this situation. It will determine the duration of the benefits the employee is eligible to receive. Further, without clarification as to whether 6/09 is the retirement age considered by LTD, it is unclear as to the status of the case. Next

45. 13. Employee unable to resume work duties to illness. Doctor’s note putting employee off work till March ’09. • Yes • No Answer: A Next

46. 14. Pending SCDR (Service Connected Disability Retirement) • Yes • No Answer: B When was the case filed? Although the comment is indicative of the status of the case, it needs to show if placement effort was made during the waiting period to prevent potential penalty in the event the case is denied by LACERA. Next

47. 15. Permanent Work Ristriction not compatible with Usual &Customary Duties • Yes • No Answer: B When was the determination made and what activities took place that led to this conclusion? Next

48. 16. Requested POA (Plan of Action) 3/24/08, IPA scheduled for 05/08/08 • Yes • No Answer: A Next

49. 17. Department cannot accommodate permanent work restrictions. Countywide job search conducted in May 08. No alternate positions identified. • Yes • No Answer: A This comment indicates that the case should be referred to DHR/CEO for inter-departmental placement. Next

50. 18. Chronic Hepatitis C- Interactive Meeting on May 28, 2008. Employee advised of medical separation. Executive staff decided to hold off on medically separating him per employee’s request. This will be revisited in 60 days. He is on long term disability and deemed disabled by Social Security. • Yes • No Answer: A Next