COVID-19 Employee Frequently Asked Questions

Emergency Paid Sick Leave

• You may take up to 2 weeks.
• You can use leave if you are unable to work on campus or remotely because
  1. you are subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
  2. you have been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19;
  3. you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and you are seeking a medical diagnosis;
  4. you are caring for an individual who is subject to a quarantine or isolation order or advised to self-quarantine by a health care provider;
  5. you are caring for one of your children whose school or care provider is closed or unavailable due to COVID-19 precautions; OR
  6. you are experiencing another substantially similar condition specified by the U.S. Dept of HHS in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor.

Expanded Family and Medical Leave

• You may take up to 12 weeks.
• You can use leave if you are unable to work on campus or remotely because you must care for a child (under 18 years of age) because the child’s school or care provider is closed or unavailable due to a coronavirus emergency as declared by a Federal, State, or local authority.
• This leave allowance requires that the first 10 days be taken UNPAID, but those are permitted to overlap with Emergency Paid Sick Leave (reason #5 above).

Who is eligible for Emergency Paid Sick Leave?
Any active employee (full-time, part-time, adjunct, student employee) as of April 1, 2020.

Who is eligible for Expanded Family and Medical Leave?
Any active employee who has been employed for at least 30 calendar days prior to the day leave would begin.

A part-time employee is entitled to leave for his or her average number of work hours in a two-week period.

REASON FOR LEAVE	RATE OF PAY
Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19	regular rate of pay up to $511 per day
Advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19	regular rate of pay up to $511 per day
Experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis	regular rate of pay up to $511 per day
Caring for an individual who is under a quarantine or isolation order or has been advised to self-quarantine	2/3 of regular rate of pay up to $200 per day
Caring for a child whose school or child care has been closed due to COVID-19	2/3 of regular rate of pay up to $200 per day
Experiencing any other substantially similar conditions specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services	2/3 of regular rate of pay up to $200 per day

NOTE: To the extent that the employee received 2/3 of the regular rate of pay, the employee may use accrued leave to cover the additional 1/3 or opt to take unpaid leave. Employees will not accrue additional leave during this period.

You may be eligible for both types of leave, but only for a total of twelve weeks of paid leave. You may take both Emergency Paid Sick Leave and then Expanded Family and Medical Leave to care for your child whose school or place of care is closed, or child care provider is unavailable, due to COVID-19 related reasons.

• The Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act provides for an initial two weeks of paid leave. This period covers the first ten workdays of expanded family and medical leave, which are otherwise unpaid under the Emergency and Family Medical Leave Expansion Act unless you elect to use existing vacation, personal, or medical or sick leave under your employer’s policy.
• After the first ten workdays have elapsed, you will receive 2/3 of your regular rate of pay under the Emergency and Family Medical Leave Expansion Act for any hours you would have been scheduled to work in the subsequent ten weeks.

Please note that you can only receive the additional ten weeks of expanded family and medical leave under the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act for leave to care for your child whose school or place of care is closed, or child care provider is unavailable, due to COVID-19 related reasons.

All employees must complete an electronic absence form to request leave, providing the applicable reason under the statue. This form must be approved by your supervisor and automatically submitted to Human Resources.

Absence form

Employees will not accrue additional leave while using Emergency Paid Sick Leave and/or Expanded Family and Medical Leave.

Not at this time

One of the COVID-19 qualifying reasons set forth in the FFCRA prevents you from being able to perform work assigned by MWSU, either under normal circumstances on campus at your normal worksite or by means of remote work.

If you and your supervisor agree that you will work your normal number of hours, but outside of your normally scheduled hours (for instance early in the morning or late at night), then you can work and leave is not necessary unless a COVID-19 qualifying reason prevents you from working that schedule.

It depends.

If you are remote working and unable to work your normal schedule of hours due to one of the qualifying reasons in the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act, you may take emergency paid sick leave intermittently.

If you are working on campus and unable to work your normal schedule of hours due to caring for your child whose school or place of care is closed, or whose child care provider is unavailable, because of COVID-19 reasons, you may take emergency paid sick leave intermittently, but only with your supervisor’s approval of the schedule requested.

If you are requesting emergency paid sick leave for any other qualifying reason related to COVID-19, you must take full-day increments and it cannot be taken intermittently. As a reminder, these are the reasons for taking leave are if:

• You are subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
• You have been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19;
• You are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis;
• You are caring for an individual who either is subject to a quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19 or has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19; or
• You are experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

This limit is imposed because if you are sick or possibly sick with COVID-19, or caring for an individual who is sick or possibly sick with COVID-19, the intent of FFCRA is to provide such paid sick leave as necessary to keep you from spreading the virus to others.

If you are an eligible employee, you are entitled to emergency paid sick leave under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act regardless of how much leave you have taken under the FMLA. Emergency paid sick leave is not a form of FMLA leave and therefore does not count toward the 12 workweeks in the 12-month period cap.

Your eligibility for expanded family and medical leave depends on how much leave you have already taken during the 12-month period that your employer uses for FMLA leave. You may take a total of 12 workweeks for FMLA or expanded family and medical leave reasons during a 12-month period. If you have taken some, but not all, 12 workweeks of your leave under FMLA during the current 12-month period determined by your employer, you may take the remaining portion of leave available. If you have already taken 12 workweeks of FMLA leave during this 12-month period, you may not take additional expanded family and medical leave.

For example, assume you are eligible for pre-existing FMLA leave and took two weeks of such leave in January 2020 to undergo and recover from a surgical procedure. You therefore have 10 weeks of FMLA leave remaining. Because expanded family and medical leave is a type of FMLA leave, you would be entitled to take up to 10 weeks of expanded family and medical leave, rather than 12 weeks. Any expanded family and medical leave you take would count against your entitlement to pre-existing FMLA leave.

Missouri Department of Labor https://labor.mo.gov/coronavirus#mini-panel-coronavirus-tabs1

 For Employees: 

• If this is your first time filing for unemployment please watch this video on unemployment basics and visit our video library for more information at labor.mo.gov/des/videos.
• Visit UInteractto file for unemployment and access our video gallery at uinteract.labor.mo.gov, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• To contact a Regional Claims Center representative by email:  esuiclaims@labor.mo.gov

Regional Claims Center representatives are available by phone Monday – Friday from 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM by calling:

	Jefferson City	573-751-9040
	Kansas City	816-889-3101
	Springfield	417-895-6851
	St. Louis	314-340-4950
	Outside Local Calling Area	800-320-2519

UInteract (uinteract.labor.mo.gov) is an easy to use mobile-friendly online Unemployment Insurance application that is available to workers and employers 24/7. Ninety percent of claimants are able to file online, without assistance.

If you need more information on Unemployment Insurance:

• Visit the Missouri Division of Employment Security website at mo.gov/DES.
• Visit the Unemployment Video Library at labor.mo.gov/DES/videos

The Missouri Department of Labor has waived any waiting week requirement served for all claims filed as a result of the coronavirus. Eligible individuals will receive payment for the waiting week as their first payment and not have to wait until they have exhausted benefits to be paid for the waiting week. However, individuals will not get paid until after the protest period.

Unemployment insurance is paid by employers. Your last employer and all of your base period employers have the right to protest an employee’s unemployment claim. Employers must have the opportunity to protest before we pay their money out of their account to you. This is a usual part of the process and is a period of about ten days. If after that time, no issues are discovered and no protests are received, you would receive back payment for any money due. However, it is important that during this time you continue to request payments weekly.

MWSU cannot protest a layoff.
MWSU will protest an unemployment claim if an employee resigns.

Once the individual is separated from work, they should immediately files a claim for unemployment benefits.

Missouri’s unemployment insurance program continues to be in effect. Under Missouri unemployment law, refusing to return to work without good cause to obtain additional funds under the regular unemployment program or the CARES Act qualifies as fraud.

The FPUC provides an additional $600 payment per week to those eligible for at least one dollar in regular unemployment benefits during that week. The $600 federal supplement provided under the FPUC is effective the week beginning March 29, 2020 for those eligible to receive a regular unemployment weekly payment. The Missouri Department of Labor expects the payments to begin going out to eligible recipients as early as the week of April 12, 2020.

Under the FPUC, the $600 payment may be paid on top of weekly benefits for up to four (4) months, not to exceed July 25, 2020.

The FPUC is 100% federally funded.

Missouri’s unemployment insurance program continues to be in effect. Under Missouri unemployment law, most people who are currently employed and quit are not eligible for unemployment benefits. If an employer offers sick leave and/or other leave or remote work options to address COVID-19 in lieu of layoffs, then a person who quits on his/her own violation would not qualify for unemployment benefits. At this point, no federal legislation changes this part of Missouri’s program eligibility for unemployment. Quitting without good cause to obtain additional funds under the regular unemployment program or the CARES Act qualifies as fraud.

In most situations, yes.

In most cases, no.

Maybe. Each situation must be handled on a case by case basis.

Weekly work search activities are not required for those that file their unemployment claim as a coronavirus-related claim.