Members working as school district employees or as instructors in colleges or universities, who take paid sabbatical leave, must remain covered by URS if they are compensated for at least 50% of their regular annual salary and continue to receive benefits normally provided during paid sabbatical leave. For members to maintain full service credit, appropriate retirement contributions should continue to be reported by their employers. Not including member account/employee paid contributions for members in a contributory retirement system could result in a reduction in service accrual for the report periods affected.
Employers should complete Sections A and B of the Leave Notification (Form MELV-1) when contributions reported to our office represent hours under the minimum required for eligibility in a URS retirement system. In these cases, mark the “other” box and use sabbatical leave as the “explanation.” When the member returns to work, complete Section C of the form, make a copy for the member’s personnel file, and send the original Leave Notification to our office.