Like so many other businesses and organizations, COVID-19 has forced the Chattanooga Housing Authority to change or alter some of its policies. One such instance of this is how CHA has utilized its furlough policy, which will stay in effect until Dec. 31.
This policy would address employees that cannot work from home, or where there is “not enough work to keep them engaged.” This new policy would allow staff to use any and all accrued leave during this time.
If an employee begins to run out of paid leave time, they ”will be responsible for paying CHA for any benefits they are holding to remain fully insured.”
This policy would be retroactively applied to April 1. According to one of the board members, there is a chance that no person would need to use unpaid leave. She said what the point of this policy is to “create as broad a policy as we can” to use any and all paid leave they have before being furloughed.
Vacation time, sick leave, and paid time off are all included as “paid time off,” and employees would not have restrictions on when they use it.
There is only one employee who is currently nearing the end of their paid time off. In this case, the board said that person will need to apply for unemployment. The number of people who are on paid time off in general vary by department.
Much of the maintenance staff are working, while office staff are working with either a skeleton crew or are working from home. One of the three people who is using paid leave has a year of paid leave stored up, said the board.
After this policy was approved, the Chattanooga Housing Authority signed a resolution retroactively implemented parts of the CARES Act. These would alleviate the burdens of those affected by the virus, with methods including the taking of loans from accounts and delaying the payments of those loans.
To qualify for this act, the individual would have to be diagnosed with COVID-19 or have a dependent or spouse that has been diagnosed. They would have to self-declare they qualify for the resources provided by the CARES Act.