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General Program Eligibility and Scope

III. General Program Eligibility and Scope

A. This program is available to all permanent full-time and part-time University staff employees who experience a new injury or illness, job-related or not, and whose physician is of the opinion that the employee will be able to return to his/her regular job duties. Faculty and academic student employees are not included in this program due to the nature of the essential job functions of both employee groups. All faculty or academic student employee transitional employment needs are managed by the specific college department and shall be consistent with university’s academic policies and procedures.

  • All employees have the right to confer with the Equity and Diversity Manager/ADA for consideration of reasonable accommodations.

B. All transitional employment duties under this program will be assigned in writing by the university within the employee’s medical restrictions and begin on the date approved by the treating physician.

C. An end date, or medical status review date, must be included as part of a physician’s work restrictions instructions initiating the need for the university to develop a written Transitional Employment Plan (TE Plan-Appendix C). TE Plans are developed for periods of no more than four (4) weeks at a time.

  1. All employee limitations/restrictions will be lifted on the date specified unless a revised evaluation is provided to the Risk Manager prior to the expiration date of the TE Plan.
  2. The employee will be required to return to his/her regular job duties the next scheduled work day, not including pre-approved leave time, or be subject to disciplinary action consistent with the terms of CSULB’s administrative guidelines for progressive discipline, the applicable collective bargaining agreement and in compliance with applicable provisions of the California Education Code.

D. TE Plans will include modified or alternate work, as previously defined, which includes part time employment; deleting, adding or otherwise altering job tasks; job sharing; job restructuring; use of assistive devices and workstation modifications; and any other method approved by the university to assist in providing transitional employment opportunities while meeting the needs of the university.

E. The ability of the university to provide temporary modified or alternate work for eligible employees will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the employee’s supervisor (MPP level). If he or she cannot accommodate the employee, the case will be immediately referred to the Return-to-Work (RTW) Committee.

  1. The University will first attempt to develop a transitional employment assignment within the employee’s work unit.
  2. An assignment in another work unit, department or division will be pursued should one not be available within the employee’s current work unit, department or division.

F. Participation in the program is mandatory when a transitional employment assignment is made available to the employee.

G.The initial maximum length of available modified or alternate duty will be four (4) weeks, with the possibility of an additional eight (8) weeks based on review of the employee’s progress, as indicated by the PTP’s status reports, and the needs of the work unit.

  1. It is the intent of the University to limit a modified or alternate duty assignment to no more than twelve (12) weeks total per injury or illness.
  2. In some situations, based upon the work unit’s unique requirements, the employee’s expertise and/or the employee’s medical progress as defined by the PTP, a temporary duty assignment may be extended beyond this initial twelve (12) week period.
  3. Each extension of modified or alternate work duty is limited to four (4) weeks or less, is based upon the PTP’s ongoing recommendations, and requires a written TE Plan. The TE Plan must be signed by the employee, the employee’s supervisor if an MPP, or the responsible MPP, and the campus Risk Manager.
  4. Written confirmation of all university actions regarding TE Plans exceeding the twelve (12) week recovery period will be issued by the Risk Manager, within five (5) working days of a decision, to the employee, the employee’s supervisor, the responsible MPP (when supervisor is not an MPP) and the RTW Committee.
H. Under no circumstances will a TE Plan participant be allowed to return to work for the University without first providing a signed statement from their physician identifying the employee’s work restrictions or the employee’s release from work restrictions.

I. The university reserves the right to modify, change, or terminate this program at any time to meet the requirements of any applicable federal or state regulations, CSU policy and/or any bargaining unit agreement. In any such case, the RTW Committee will notify all applicable parties in compliance with the applicable collective bargaining unit agreement(s).