(Kathy Guild, CSEA Dep. Director of Contract Administration, March 19, 2018)

CSEA recently received new Cancer Screening Policy language from OCA (see below). In addition to the information provided, please note that the Cancer Screening Leave must be pre-approved and employees must provide documentation to substantiate their absence for cancer screening upon return to work.

“Currently, Civil Service Law provides for 4 hours of paid leave, without charge to leave credits, for New York State employees to undergo breast and/or prostate cancer screenings. Effective March 18, 2018, the specific references in the law to ‘breast’ and ‘prostate’ are replaced with ‘cancer’ screening, generally.

“This change in law broadens the scope of the existing Court System leave benefit by covering all cancer screenings. The Court System will continue to provide employees with up to 4 hours of paid leave to undergo screening for breast and/or prostate cancer. This means that employees will be entitled to up to 12 hours of paid leave annually to undergo cancer screenings – 4 hours for breast cancer, 4 hours for prostate cancer and 4 hours for any other type(s) of cancer. Part-time employees are also entitled to 4 hours of paid leave for each type of screening. Travel time is included in the 4 hours. Any absence beyond the 4-hour maximum must be charged to the employee’s leave credits.

“Leave for cancer screenings is provided on an annual basis and does not carry over from one calendar year to the next. However, the 4 hours may be used all at once or in increments over the course of the year. For example, if an employee uses 2 hours of paid leave to undergo breast cancer screening and the employee’s doctor requires the employee to undergo further screening/testing in the same year, the employee is entitled to 2 more hours of paid leave for this purpose. Employees who undergo cancer screenings outside their regular work hours do so on their own time and are not entitled to receive compensatory time.”