Federal Employees - medical coverage?

My bank does not do that, but it is a great idea.  I asked a year ago when I was strapped for cash.  Thank you for your reply - I am determined to get this done so I will find a way for it to work....

I'm a federal employee and I took sick leave that I'd accumulated. I had 88 days saved.  If you don't have any sick days then, yes, it's EI or nothing. 

And the taxes off of EI when I was on medical leave amounted to about $20 and I made the max that EI pays out.

Myndy

I have 5 days accumulated at this point, which would cover one week.  88 days is awesome!!!  I went on sick leave about 4 years ago and used up my accumulated at that point.  Never really recovered from going back to zero sick days.  Plus I have to used the sick days to cover medical appointments and there are a lot of them, so I do not think I will be able to accumulate much more from now until surgery.  I will figure something out.  I'm going to research leave with income averaging and and whether I could get the limit on my LOC upped. Just kind of ticks me off after the huge amount I have paid in that there is nothing for me when I really need it. 

Hello,

I am a federal employee and if you are short on sick leave you can be forwarded up to 3 weeks of sick leave... 

35.04 When an employee has insufficient or no credits to cover the granting of sick leave with pay under the provisions of clause 35.02, sick leave with pay may, at the discretion of the Employer, be granted to the employee for a period of up to one hundred and eighty‑seven decimal five (187.5) hours, subject to the deduction of such advanced leave from any sick leave credits subsequently earned.

sorry... it's 7 weeks you can be forwarded.

If you are a fed employee don't you have a sick bank? Number of sick days per year you can use? Vacation days and OT?

Some ppl have been off work for only 3 weeks.

guess it all depends how long you expect to be off for, and can you do a couple weeks off no pay? 

I have 5 sick leave days  and 1 vacation day banked, which I will use to cover the first week after surgery.  After that I don't know what I am going to do as EI will not only cover half my bills.  If surgery falls after March 31st then I will have 3 weeks of vacation coming so I could use those and that would give me 4 weeks.  But then I will have zero vacation days for the entire year, which will not be good either.  And what if I need 6 weeks or longer?  Then I am completely stuck.  I am really kicking myself for not looking into this sooner. 

The EI inforamtion that you have is correct.  Talk to your pay & benifits co-ordinator.  They may be able to help you with some options. If there is short term disability, it may be that it's not through Sun Life.  Also, before you go into the hospital, check your hospital coverage.  Basic gets you a ward room, but there are levels that cover semi private and private (if you take a room at the level you are covered for, you may still have to pay a small amount, but if you have private coverage and get a semi private room, there's no extra charge).

I'm not sure what kind of work you do, but would there be any way you could talk to your boss about working from home for a week or more?  Then you wouldn't need to take as much leave and you could work at your own pace as long as you had your time put in.

Cathy

Just editing to add, if you do go on EI, they take some taxes off each pay, but it's usually not enough.  Just something to be aware of for the next tax season.

Thank you Cathy, I will definitely get in touch with my pay and bens person again. I asked her if I had any other options and she said no.  This is surprising because I believe income averaging might be another option, and if it is I will most likely do that. Having 100 dollars off each paycheck for a year and no break in pay would be the best solution.  About the rooms in Ottawa, someone told me they are all semi-private so not to bother getting the extra coverage. Would you know if that is correct? 

I don't know if there were wards or not in the trama unit (that's where all bariatric patients stay).  It's been a while.  Mention it when you go in for your pre-op stuff.

Cathy