Multiple Short-Term Disability Leaves
This section applies to situations in which you return to work after being on an approved short-term disability leave and you begin leave again due to an unrelated medical or behavioral health condition or more than 60 days after returning to work. If you have multiple short-term disability leaves, under the following circumstances your leave will be considered a new short-term disability (versus a continuation of the same leave):
- If you begin a short-term disability leave more than 60 calendar days after returning from a prior short-term disability leave; or
- If you begin a short-term disability leave any time after returning from a prior short-term disability leave that was for a different medical or behavioral health condition.
If either of the above circumstances applies, you will be required to complete another one-week wait period. Your maximum short-term disability leave duration (i.e., 26 weeks) will begin anew and will be calculated separately from any previous disability leave taken. If you are eligible and approved for short-term disability pay, you are eligible for up to 25 weeks of pay according to the short-term disability pay schedule. If your disability begins in the same calendar year that your prior disability leave began, your pay will resume at the level you were receiving for the preceding claim. For example:
- Assume you are a full-time employee with five years of recognized service. According to the "Short-Term Disability Pay Schedule", in a calendar year you would be eligible for up to 10 weeks of disability pay at 100% of pay and up to 15 weeks of disability pay at 60% of pay. Assume your short-term disability leave is approved for six weeks. During your first week of leave, you would be required to use available sick time to cover the one-week wait period for short-term disability pay. You would then receive 100% of your pay for the next five weeks before your return to work.
- Assume that several months later you begin a new short-term disability leave and it is approved for twelve weeks. Since you previously received five weeks of short-term disability pay at 100% of pay, you would be entitled to receive five additional weeks at 100% of pay. Therefore, the two week remainder of your short-term disability leave would be paid at 60% of pay.
Please Note: Should you continue to be disabled longer than 26 weeks for the same disability, you may be eligible for long-term disability benefits if you had JPMorgan Chase-provided LTD coverage or you elected coverage under the LTD Plan before becoming disabled and you are approved by the LTD claims administrator. You must pursue the LTD claim to its conclusion, including exhausting all required appeals, before reapplying for STD benefits related to the same disability.