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COVID19

Shayne’s COVID-19 and Operations Updates – Week of 4/10/2020

By April 13, 2020No Comments

APRIL 10, 2020

Good afternoon IINE Colleagues,

I hope you are having a good Friday and looking forward to the weekend.

 

Aside from clarifying the leave policies made available under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), there is little new information to convey. A friendly reminder to make sure you continue to observe social distancing and practice good hygiene. For all the resources IINE has made available, be sure to visit team.iine.org.

 

Operational Reminders​: 

First off, a quick reminder of policies put in place as part of our suspension of in-person services and of other ongoing projects:

 

Volunteers & Interns: 

All interns and volunteers must be approved to continue their voluntary engagements with IINE. To request approval, please fill out this form: https://iine.wufoo.com/forms/w1ikwzr81nu5hb3/

 

Meetings & Travel: 

Any visits to an IINE office, meetings with other IINE employees, meetings with clients, and travel on behalf of IINE must be approved in advance. To request approval, first get in touch with your Managing Director and then complete this form: https://iine.wufoo.com/forms/wmxpdkz0eoaazs/


GoToMeeting Licenses: 

We have technically been approved additional licenses through LogMeIn (the company that owns JIVE and GoToMeeting), but we’ve been having trouble getting access to those licenses. We are working now to get those accounts activated and to staff, but we’re dependent on their customer and tech support teams. The Office Managers will update their sites once we have additional instructions.

 

Resumes:

Please remember to submit your updated resume no later than today, Friday April 10, 2020 at the following link: https://iine.wufoo.com/forms/w1muwf170o0mnan/

 

Evaluations 

We’ll have a better sense for whether and when we’re conducting Quarter 2 evaluations once we learn more about the PPP Loan. For now, excepting the managers I’ve emailed for more information or for goals that were missing from my Wufoo collector, employees can review their goals on ClearCompany. If you were unable to attend one of the live trainings, please watch the recorded video here (thanks to Igor for making this easily available): https://team.iine.org/quarterly-performance-evaluation-training/

 

Employee Opinion Survey:

Similar to the quarterly performance evaluations, the timing of the EOS survey will depend on the PPP Loan. Once a timeline is established, I’ll be sending everyone instructions and a link to the survey.

​FFCRA Leave Policies

Please remember that, per IINE policy, if you are unable to meet your regularly scheduled hours, you will be required to use available leave (PTO, FMLA, PFML, or ESPL) before you are eligible to request unpaid time off. You can order the leave in whichever way you’d prefer, but you will not be able to take unpaid time off until your leave options are exhausted. Accrued sick time cannot be used for anything other than caring for the health of yourself or a loved one.

 

As noted in previous updates, under the FFCRA, as of April 1, 2020 IINE employees became eligible for 2 new types of paid leave:

  • 80 hours of Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL), separate from an employee’s accrued sick time. The 80 hours are based on full time status (a 40-hour workweek) and will be prorated for part time employees.
  • 10 weeks of Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML), starting 2 weeks from date of filing. This is separate from the 80 hours of EPSL.
 

How to request leave under FFCRA: 

Forms for requesting ESPL and for filing for PFML under the Families First Act are still being developed (I’ll share them once available), but for now anyone needing to use these leave options should send me an email with the following information:

  1. Type of leave requested (ESPL or PFML)
  2. Employee full name
  3. Date(s) leave is being requested
  4. Hour(s) per date being requested. If irregular, please specify.
  5. The coronavirus-qualifying reason for leave (see reasons 1-6 listed below)
  6. The following statement: “I’m unable to work or telework because of the above referenced reason for leave”.
  7. Name of the government entity that issued the quarantine or isolation order, or the healthcare professional making the quarantine recommendation, or the following information if the leave is taken to care for a child (or children):
    1. Name of the child or children being cared for
    2. The name of the school, place of care or child care provider that closed or became unavailable due to coronavirus reasons.
    3. The following statement: “No other suitable person is available to care for the above named child during the period of requested leave.”
 

Qualifying reasons for leave under FFCRA:

An employee is entitled to take leave related to COVID-19 if the employee is unable to work, including unable to work remotely, because the employee:

  1. is subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
  2. has been advised by a health care provider to  self-quarantine related to COVID-19;
  3. is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and is seeking  a medical diagnosis;
  4. is caring for an individual subject to an order described  in (1) or self-quarantine as described in (2);
  5. is caring for his or her child whose school or place of care is closed (or child care provider is unavailable) due to COVID-19 related reasons; or
  6. is experiencing any other substantially-similar condition specified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
 

Emergency Paid Sick Leave: Employees can use EPSL for any of the above six qualifying reasons. Pay for reasons 1-3 is 100% normal rate, while pay for reasons 4-6 is at 2/3 normal rate.

 

To report EPSL time for reasons 1-3 on your timecard, select the pay code “FF-PSL-EE”. To report EPSL time for reasons 4-6 on your timecard, select pay code “FF-PSL-FAM”.

 

Paid Family Medical Leave: Employees caring for children that would otherwise be in childcare or in schools (qualifying reason #5 above) are eligible. Pay is 2/3 normal rate. Please note that, per part 7c of the requested information above, only one individual is able to take time under the PFML of the Families First Act to care for a child or children at any given time. Two parents are not able to take the same time off under FFCRA for care of their shared child (or children).

 

To report PFML on your timecard, select the pay code “FF-FMLA”. You should only utilize this pay code after you have been approved and instructed to do following a conversation with me.

 

As always please reach out to me or your supervisor with any questions.

 

That’s all for this week. I hope you have a great weekend!

 

Sincerely,

Shayne

Shayne Kinsella | Director of Human Resources and Operations | International Institute of New England
2 Boylston Street, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02116 | Tel (617) 695-0965