Covered employees become eligible to take Paid Family Leave for a qualifying event once they have met the minimum time-worked requirements and if they are in a union that has opted into the program. Please click here for a list of Covered Unions.

1. Full-time employees: Employees who work a regular schedule of 20 or more hours per week are eligible after 26 consecutive weeks of employment.
   
2. Part-time employees: Employees who work a regular schedule of less than 20 hours per week are eligible after working 175 days, which do not need to be consecutive. Employees with irregular schedules should look at their average schedule to determine if they work, on average, fewer than 20 hours per week.

You must notify your employer at least 30 days before the start of leave if foreseeable; otherwise, notify your employer as soon as possible.

You must submit your completed request package no later than 30 days after the start of your leave to avoid losing benefits. If Agency HR do not receive the request for leave within 30 days of when the leave began, we are only able to accept dates starting two weeks prior to the date we received the request for the leave.

The maximum number of leave days you can take is 60 days and the 60 days must be taken in full day increments only. If you choose to take intermittent leave  and more than three months pass between days of Paid Family Leave, your next day or period of PFL is considered a new claim under the law. This means you will need to submit a new Request for Paid Family Leave. 

You can take Paid Family Leave to care for a close family member with a serious health condition, including family members outside of New York State. (City of New York Paid Family Leave Benefits for Represented Employees)

Family members include:

• spouse­ domestic partner (including same and different gender couples; legal registration not required)­
• child/stepchild and anyone for whom you have legal custody­ parent/stepparent (biological, foster, adoptive parent, parent-in-law, stepparent, legal guardian, or another person who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a child)­
• grandparent (parent of the employee’s parent)
• grandchild. (child of the employee’s child)
• sibling (biological siblings, adopted siblings, step-siblings, and half-siblings)

Yes.  PFL can be taken within the first twelve months after the placement of the child for adoption or foster care. A child must either be under the age of 18 or incapable of self-care because of mental or physical disability.

Employees who take Paid Family Leave will receive 67% of their average weekly wage (AWW), capped at 67% of the New York State Average Weekly Wage. Generally, your AWW is the average of your last eight weeks of pay prior to starting Paid Family Leave, including overtime and eligible bonuses. The maximum weekly benefit for 2024 is $1,151.16. (Note: When calculating benefits, Paid Family Leave insurers must use whichever is higher: the last eight weeks worked including the week when PFL started, or the last eight weeks worked not including the week PFL started.)

Paid Family Leave benefits are paid on a weekly basis and are distributed by a paper check mailed to your home address.

Yes, you should send AbSolve a direct deposit form information.

You can contact your local HR representatives and AbSolve Leave Administration at 1-800-401-2691, 7-days prior to your return-to-work date. This will ensure that there is no overpayment on your leave.

Contact your Agency HR, and AbSolve Leave Administration at 1-800-401-2691, to see if you are eligible for an extension and to verify if additional medical documentation is required.

You may be eligible to take up to 12 weeks of Paid Family Leave. Once your 12 weeks have been exhausted, it will be regained on a 12-month rolling calendar beginning with the start date of your initial leave period.

FMLA is available for one’s own disability/incapacitation period (for instance prior to or following childbirth). PPL & PFL is only available for bonding/caring for another. The birth parent could request PPL & PFL following the period of incapacitation provided it is within one year of the birth event. If the allotment of FMLA has not been exhausted by the period of incapacitation, PPL & PFL would run concurrently with FMLA and may extend beyond.

CUNY adjunct employees will become eligible to receive PFL benefits when the employee has worked for at least 26 work weeks or 175 work-days, whichever is sooner, prior to the first full day the leave begins OR if the employee was previously employed and eligible to receive PFL benefits then returns to employment within 52 weeks of the date employment previously ended before the first full day of leave begins.

Paid Family Leave only covers dates that you would normally be scheduled to work with your employer. If you’re not scheduled to work in between semesters or for an upcoming semester, you would not be eligible to use Paid Family Leave for those dates.

PFL package can be obtained at your Agency HR office. Employees should complete Part A and submit to HR who will complete the rest and submit to AbSolve.

For DOE Employees only:

To apply for a Paid Family Leave, either full-time or intermittently, use the Self-Service Online Leave Application System(SOLAS). You will need your DOE ID and Login to access the SOLAS System. The third- party insurer(Absolve) will then communicate directly with you, sending you instructions on how to continue and finalize your application.

Please allow up to three business days for AbSolve's to review the paperwork.

1. Required Forms
   Request for Paid Parental Leave (HC-0007)
   Request for Paid Family Leave (Form PFL-1) Bonding Certification (Form PFL-2)
2. Required Documentation
3. Birth Mother or Person who has Adopted
   A copy of the child’s birth certificate, if available, or an original copy of a health care provider certification of birth. Adoption Parent would need copy of the Adoption records or amended birth certificate
4. Parent Other Than Birth Mother
   A copy of the child’s birth certificate, if available, naming you as the second parent, a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity (Form LDSS-4418), or a Court Order of Filiation
   OR
   Same documentation as birth mother and a second document verifying the relationship to the birth mother (for example, marriage certificate, civil union, or domestic partner document).

1. Required Forms:
   1. Request for Paid Family Leave (Form PFL-1)
   2. Release of Personal Health Information Under the Paid Family Leave Law (Form PFL-3) – should be completed and given to the treating physician to hold
   3. Health Care Provider Certification for Care of Family Member with Serious Health Condition (Form PFL-4)

1. Required Forms:
   1. Request for Paid Family Leave (Form PFL-1)
   2. Military Qualifying Event (Form PFL-5)

You can take Paid Family Leave when you need time to assist with family situations arising when your spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent is on active service in a foreign country or has been notified of an impending call or order of active service to a foreign country.

To request the Paid Family Leave forms, you can contact your Agency HR

Employees should notify their agencies first. Once a Paid Family Leave Claim has been opened AbSolve will send notification to your employer. We will request that they complete the Request for Paid Family Leave (Form PFL-1, Part B) if not already completed and Absolve will verify the dates with HR representative.

An employee has 30 full days from their leave start date to provide AbSolve with all information necessary.

This is not a required field to be completed by employee, HR would be filling out the information. However, if you are able to provide us with this amount, it may speed up the processing of your claim. If your employer has not provided wage information to us, we would use this amount as an estimate until we receive the appropriate wages needed to accurately calculate your benefit amount.

The state requires that wages are reviewed for 8 weeks prior to and excluding your leave begin date as well as 8 weeks prior to and including your last day of work. Once we have these two sets of wages, we review to determine which amount would be more beneficial to you. You will then receive 67% of the higher amount, or the maximum weekly benefit for 2024 is $1,151.16. If we do not have either set of wages required at the time of approval, we would use the average gross weekly wage amount you have provided to calculate the benefit as an estimate. If we did not receive an average gross weekly wage amount from you, we will request the additional wages required from your employer and provide a deadline for them to provide this information before we would issue the payment to you using the wages we have at that time, even if they do not meet the wages required by the state. Once we receive the appropriate wages required, we will notify you if there is a change to your benefit amount based on that information.

This would be considered an overpayment since you cannot receive payment from your employer and through PFL benefits for the same dates. You would need to work out a reimbursement with your employer. In order to avoid overpayment, your employer should be informed of the PFL dates requested and approved.

The start date of an intermittent leave must be the first PFL day taken, and the leave cannot be approved without time being used. As per State requirements, If leave is requested but not taken within 30 days, the claim may be denied. Once the claim is approved you may call the time in as needed or provide a list of dates to your Agency HR representative and Absolve Leave Specialist in advance, at 1-800-401-2691. Dates requested more than 30 days in the past will be denied. An approved claim cannot sit unused for more than 90 days. If 90 days pass without additional days used the claim will be closed and an entirely new claim with new application forms will be required.

If your minor dependent child is under a mandatory or precautionary order of quarantine or isolation issued by the State of New York, the Department of Health, local board of health, or any government entity duly authorized to issue such order due to COVID-19, you may be eligible to take Paid Family Leave to care for them. This benefit is not available to you if you are able to work through remote access (this is based on employers’ discretion) or other means.

The form package for leave due to your quarantine/isolation includes the following forms:

• Request for COVID-19 Quarantine PFL - Child (Form COVID19)
• Request for Paid Family Leave (Form PFL-1 & Mandatory Order of Quarantine.

If you have an eligible family member who contracts COVID-19, you may be able to take Paid Family Leave to care for them, if the illness has been established and the condition meets the definition of a serious health condition and is certified by a treating physician.

If you cannot get documentation to support a leave request within this timeframe, the insurance carrier can deny the request.

If you disagree with the insurance carrier's decision, you may request arbitration for a denial or any other PFL claim-related dispute, such as timeliness of the carrier’s payment.

1. Arbitration for Paid Family Leave is handled by NAM (National Arbitration and Mediation).
2. If you are denied or partially denied for Paid Family Leave, your insurance carrier must provide you with the reason for denial and information about requesting arbitration, or you can visit the arbitrator’s website at https://nyspfla.namadr.com.
3. If your request for Paid Family Leave is denied and you have already started your leave, you are not considered to be on Paid Family Leave, you and your agency HR will determine how to treat the time off.

Yes, your employer needs to complete the PFL1-Part B. As stated, you should submit your PFL-1 Part A to your HR representative who will then complete and submit the documentation to Absolve. In cases where incomplete documentation, and additional supporting documents are required, AbSolve will notify the employee and Agency HR.

As part of Benefit coordination Process –For employees who are applying for Employer Paid Parental Leave & Paid Family Leave (Child Bonding) as PFL and PPL run concurrently. The benefit payment will be set up to automatically reimburse the employer for same absence days that the employer is paying the employee.

No, an employer cannot require an employee to take other accrued benefits or company provided leave before PFL.

No. If an employee uses annual leave balances, that period would be deducted from the benefit received from Absolve. For example, if an employee uses three weeks of annual leave for bonding with a child, the employee will only be entitled to 9- weeks from Absolve, at 67% of their Average weekly wages.

According to the Tax Notice published by the state(Tax Notice No N-17-12), PFL benefits are taxable, regardless of where the employee or employer funds the benefit. Benefits paid to the employee is recorded on a Form 1099-MISC.

NOTE: A separate 1099 for PFL for bonding will not be provided since the employee will be fully paid by their employer under Paid Parental Leave.

Taxes will not automatically be withheld from benefits, but employees can request voluntary tax withholding by submitting a W-4S tax form. NY PFL benefits are considered taxable income and employees will receive a 1099 form.

NOTE: A separate 1099 for PFL for bonding will not be provided since the employee will be fully paid by their employer under Paid Parental Leave.

Employee PFL contributions must be deducted on an after-tax basis. Pretax contributions are not allowed.

“Wages” means the money rate at which employment with a covered employer is recompensed under the contract of hiring with the covered employer and shall include the reasonable value of board, rent, housing, lodging, or similar advantage received