Short Term Disability

RIT short term disability benefits can consist of two parts: your home state statutory disability benefits and for Regular Employees, an RIT benefit pay supplement.

NEW YORK STATE RESIDENTS - After a one-week waiting period of seven consecutive calendar days, New York State disability benefits provide 50% of your pay to a maximum of $170 per week. RIT supplements these benefits as outlined in the New York State Residents section below for Regular Employees.

NON-NEW YORK STATE RESIDENTS - If you reside in California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island or Washington - you may be eligible for state disability leave that you can apply for and receive the RIT supplemental Benefits. Please see section below for Non-New York state residents for the process to follow. 

RIT's Short Term Disability Supplemental Benefits

• One week waiting period before benefits are paid
  • Non-exempt employees will need to use available sick/personal days (recorded in Kronos.) Non-exempt employees that do not have available sick days may request the use of available vacation days.
  • Exempt employees will need to use exempt illness days (recorded in Oracle.)
  • Use of this time is designed to keep you at 100% of base pay during this mandatory waiting period.  If you do not have enough sick or vacation days available to cover the waiting period, you will not receive pay for days not supplemented by sick or vacation days. 
• Beginning on the 8^th calendar day of disability - RIT will supplement New York State Disability payments to 100% of your base pay for up to 8 weeks for all approved disability time. 
• If you remain disabled beyond 8 weeks, RIT can supplement the disability benefits to 80% of your base pay for the duration of the approved disability, up to 26 weeks total benefit. 

During the period of time you receive the benefit at the rate of 80%, RIT can apply any available sick days to supplement these days to 100% of your base pay.  If you wish to use sick days to supplement your disability, please notify fmla@rit.edu.

Employees who meet the eligibility for Family Medical Leave (FMLA) and short term disability will have both leaves run concurrently. 

See the FMLA page for more details. 

RIT will hold the position of an employee on an approved disability leave for six months.  If the employee is not able to return to work within six months of cumulative lost time in any rolling 52 week period, the department may begin recruitment efforts to fill the position. Questions regarding an employee's employment status should be directed to their HR Business Partner. 

An employee's benefits coverage (e.g., medical, dental) will continue during periods of short-term disability provided they pay the required employee contributions. The usual payroll contributions for benefits will be taken from your short-term disability benefits pay to the extent there is sufficient amount to cover them. Otherwise, RIT will either deduct the missed deductions when employee returns to work or have our third party billing administrator bill for the amount due.

Employees will continue to accrue vacation during during periods of disability.  However, when disability crosses over into a new fiscal year, the employee may not use the new year’s vacation accrual until they physically return to work.

Employees on disability will not receive holiday pay during periods of disability.

Short term disability can continue for up to 26 weeks of benefits. If an employee remains disabled at 19 weeks, their disability status will begin to be reviewed by Prudential for Long Term Disability benefits. Non-NY residents will need to file a long term disability claim with Prudential to begin this process. 

Employees who have a non-work-related illness or injury (including pregnancy/childbirth) that keeps them out of work for at least seven (7) consecutive calendar days, may be considered disabled and must apply for Short Term Disability benefits through Prudential, RIT's Disability Insurance carrier. 

In addition, employees should report to Prudential when:

• You are hospitalized for any amount of time
• You are pregnant or are absent from work due to pregnancy complications
• You are absent due to a lost-time, work-related injury – after first reporting it to your supervisor

If your absence is planned in advance, you should contact Prudential 30 days before your absence begins (if known) or within 2 days of learning of the need for leave if your absence is to begin within 30 days.

Additional information to know: 

• Employees who fail to contact their supervisor and Prudential will be considered to be on unauthorized leave. If the unauthorized leave continues for three working days, there may be disciplinary action, including termination of employment.
• RIT reserves the right in all cases of absence due to illness or injury to have the individual examined by an appointed or approved physician prior to or at the time of return to active employment.
• It is not necessary to be confined in a hospital to receive benefits from this plan, but you must be under a doctor’s care. The doctor must provide documentation to Prudential, the insurance company, as requested throughout your disability. Prudential will make a determination on your claim, as described in the Procedures for Disability Claims and Appeals.

All regular full time and part-time employees are eligible for Short Term Disability (including supplemental pay) after four weeks of employment at RIT, or as of your first day of employment if coming from another New York State Disability covered employer. 

Non-regular employees (adjunct and student employees) are eligible for only New York State Statutory Disability benefits. 

IMPORTANT! Employees who are unable to report to work due to an absence must notify (or have someone else notify, if unable) their immediate supervisor or the department head within a minimum of one hour of their scheduled reporting time. You do not need to give details about your medical condition, just let your supervisor know that you are unable to work.

RIT works with Prudential for disability and family leave management services for employees. Therefore, you must call Prudential’s toll-free phone number 877-908-4778 or 844-778-4255/TTY to report your absence. If your absence is planned in advance, you should contact Prudential 30 days before your absence begins or within 2 days of learning of the need for leave.  

Employees should contact Prudential as soon as possible so there is no delay in receiving short-term disability pay. Failure to contact Prudential in a timely manner may result in your pay being withheld while your claim approval is pending. If you are unsure whether your absence should be reported to Prudential, please call and the Prudential representative will review your situation and determine what the next steps are.

Information You Will be Asked to Provide When You Call Prudential

• Employer Name
• RIT Control Number – 50757
• Employee ID
• Reason for your Absence
• First day absent
• Work Schedule
• Date of expected return to work if known, or the actual date of return, if you have already returned to work
• If your absence is related to illness or injury, name, fax, and telephone number of the treating physician

After employees have set up their claim over the phone, employees should then log in to Prudential's secure website and click on the “Register Here” button and follow the instructions to set up your user ID and password. This will allow you to provide claims updates through the secure portal instead of making a phone call to report updated. 

Non-regular employees (adjunct and student employees) are eligible for only New York State Statutory Disability benefits administered by FutureComp. 

Adjunct and Student employees who are disabled should notify the RIT leave specialists by emailing fmla@rit.edu. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: RIT provides a two-week grace period to allow employees to request the medical documentation for their claim to be submitted to Prudential for review. 

Employees who are on an approved disability leave will receive their disability supplemental pay through the RIT payroll system on your current payroll cycle (bi-weekly or semi-monthly.) 

If Prudential approves short term disability benefits, regular employees will receive:

• 100% of base pay for up to eight (8) weeks.
• If disability continues, they will then receive 80% of base pay for up to an additional 18 weeks.

Short Term Disability will continue until the insurance company determines that you are no longer disabled, up to a maximum of 26 weeks. Employees must continue to provide medical documentation to Prudential for review and benefits extension as needed during their claim. 

REMINDER! RIT provides a two-week grace period to allow employees to request the medical documentation for their claim to be submitted to Prudential for review. 

New York State Disability benefits are only provided for total disability leave, which means an employee may not perform any RIT related work including emails during the disability leave. 

While on disability leave, you are required to communicate to your manager all updates to your leave status including any leave extension dates and expected return to work dates.

Maintain communication with Prudential regarding any requests for extensions, return to work updates, etc.

You are responsible for making sure your physician completes and returns all required documentation on a timely basis to Prudential.  IMPORTANT! Any request for extension of disability benefits beyond the initial approved through date will not be paid by RIT until Prudential has received medical documentation to support continued disability and approved the extension of benefits. 

You are responsible for informing RIT Human Resources and Prudential if you have permanently relocated and now work or reside outside of New York State.

Five days before your scheduled return to work date, Prudential will contact you to confirm your ability to return. If you have any accommodations or need to extend your disability leave, you must report this information to Prudential. 

IMPORTANT! You may not return to work until after you have confirmed your ability to return with Prudential, and any accommodations are reported and approved by both RIT and Prudential.

To request accommodations in the workplace due to a disability or other documented medical condition, employees should speak to their supervisor or Lori Sykes, Compliance and Ethics Manager (Phone 585-475-7393/ljspsn@rit.edu). Employees will be asked to submit a Medical/Disability Accommodation request along with supporting documentation of the disability or medical condition.

After a period of approved total disability, an employee may recover enough such that the employee is able to return to work, but not at their regular work schedule. For example, a full-time employee may be able to return to work on a part-time basis. Since the person is no longer totally disabled, this can no longer be considered short-term disability under New York State law. Therefore, RIT has a self-insured partial disability benefit; under this benefit, an employee can return to work from an established total disability on a reduced work schedule so they can progress back to the regular schedule.

In order to be eligible for this partial benefit, the employee must have an existing total disability claim approved by Prudential. The employee can then apply for partial disability:

1. The employee’s doctor must provide medical documentation to Prudential to support a partial return to work that outlines the work schedule, restrictions and duration (the duration of partial disability benefits cannot exceed a maximum of four weeks);
2. Prudential contacts RIT Human Resources with the details;
3. RIT Human Resources provides the details to the employee’s manager/supervisor so he/she can determine if the partial disability can be accommodated and;
   • If the department can accommodate the partial disability, Prudential will review the medical documentation to determine if it can be approved;
   • If the department cannot accommodate the partial disability, RIT directs the employee to complete a Medical/Disability Accommodation request to the Compliance and Ethics Manager for review.
4. If Prudential approves the partial disability, the employee receives pay for the time worked and short-term disability pay for the time not worked - if within first eight (8) weeks, the supplemental pay of 100% would apply. If after the first eight (8) weeks, then it would be 80% supplemental pay.