Sickness Period Management

Note: This integration is an extension that is developed outside the normal release schedule to meet specific customer needs. To request one of these extensions, you must submit a Salesforce Service Request to UKG. After the extension is delivered to your tenant, you can edit it accordingly.

The Sickness Period Management integration extension automates the process of dividing an employee's sickness period into waiting, paid sick, and unpaid sick leave periods, with corresponding cascading duration paycode assignments.

This integration extension offers the following:

Sickness period evaluation

After the user enters a sickness placeholder paycode identifying the entire sickness period, the extension evaluates the waiting, unpaid, and paid sick leave periods. It then cascades through a series of duration paycodes, adding the appropriate duration paycode next to the placeholder paycode in the timecard. Hours from the duration paycodes are calculated, and then exported to payroll.

Note that the cascade must be configured with duration paycodes so that shift premiums can be calculated during periods when sickness pay is applied.

Paycode visualization

The extension inserts duration sickness paycodes around scheduled break segments in the timecard. By inserting as many sickness paycode segments as there are segments in the shift, it ensures that the duration reflects regular and transfer segments in the shift.

Waiting period

Organizations can enable waiting periods in the extension. When enabled, the first part of the sickness period is considered unpaid. The number of times that the waiting period can be applied is configurable; for example, a maximum of 10 times in the 12 months prior to the relevant sickness period.

Two methods are available to determine the waiting period:

  • Number of calendar days — A specified value, representing the number of unpaid days. For example, 1.

  • Percentage of weekly contract hours — A calculated value, that uses the Employee Hours in People Information, to determine the number of unpaid hours. For example, when Employee Hours = 40 and the percentage of weekly contract hours = 20, the employee’s waiting period is calculated as 8 hours.

With the percentage of weekly contract hours method, the waiting period could span multiple days. When hours in first shift of the sickness period do not sufficiently cover the waiting period, the extension searches for the next shift, skipping unscheduled days, until the waiting period hours are satisfied.

Relapse

A relapse occurs when an employee calls out sick, within a predefined amount of time, after returning from a sickness period. The extension identifies the relapse and continues the previous sick period without starting new waiting and sickness periods.

Note that the paid sick period continues only until the point at which the previous sick period plus the relapse period equals a set maximum number of calendar days.

Sickness and premium zones

As part of an employee’s guaranteed salary, sick leave taken during a shift that would otherwise have earned a shift premium when worked, also merits a shift premium. The extension uses duration paycodes, which allows flexibility when applying the necessary premiums.