SHARE has received a number of questions and complaints about the recent emails from UMass Memorial regarding Paid Time Off. Here’s what the conversation is about . . .
What’s Happening
With the hospital moving back to the pre-COVID vacation caps at the end of the year, SHARE members and everyone else will return to their regular vacation caps. The hospital had raised the limits temporarily because they recognized that many employees worked through the pandemic without being able to take time off.
SHARE members can carry over all their earned time from one year to the next. The issue is that the caps are going back down to the negotiated limits on 12/31/2023 this year.
The charts below show the earned time caps according to seniority date and how long someone has worked here. (These can be found on pages 62 and 63 of the SHARE contract.)
What SHARE is Doing
First, we are trying to make sure that SHARE members with less earned time than the caps know that nothing will change for them.
Second, we are urging the hospital to delay the lowering of caps for 3 months so that people have time to use (or cash out) their earned time. We know that it’s very difficult for many SHARE members to get additional vacation time over the holidays, and many people have put off vacation because of the high patient census.
