Time Off
Balancing work with a personal life is often challenging. The demands of each have a way of interfering with the other. At Cobham, we recognize the importance of that balance and we strive to provide employees with the tools to keep that balance in check. Overtime can and does become a fact of life at Cobham, but for most employees this is intermittent and for short periods of time.

To help manage your work/life balance, Cobham offers employees a number of tools. These options are available on “day one” and are earned monthly.

Paid Absence Time
Salaried employees earn one day of paid absence per month, beginning with the first month of employment. This may be taken for any reason (i.e. personal business, illness, bereavement, etc). This time off may be taken in as small as one-hour increments

Salaried employees may “bank” up to 100 days of paid absence time, to be used for instances of short-term disability or maternity leave. In the event an employee exhausts all paid absence time and accrued vacation and still needs time off from work, the employee likely will be eligible for the company’s Short Term Disability benefit.

Maternity Leave
Pregnant salaried employees may take the length of time off permitted under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Employees on Maternity Leave are required to exhaust their paid absence time and their vacation during the initial absence from work. Once paid absence and vacation time are exhausted, the employee will receive half pay for the rest of their scheduled maternity leave.

Bargaining Unit employees who need extended time off for medical reasons are covered by an “accident and sickness” benefit that requires a five-day waiting period. This benefit provides partial pay for the duration of the employee’s illness or maternity leave.

FMLA
Cobham complies with all of the provisions of the Family Medical Leave Act. FMLA provides for 12 weeks away from work during a 12 month period. Cobham uses a “rolling 12 months” to calculate leave eligibility. To meet the minimum eligibility requirement, employees must have worked 1250 hours in the previous 12 months. Employees using FMLA do so under the guidelines described above (see Maternity Leave).

Vacation
Employees earn vacation beginning in the first month of employment according to the following schedule:

Employees’ vacation accruals are posted on weekly paychecks and at the Employee Self-Service website. Vacation balances are updated monthly.

Vacation time may be taken in one-hour increments, as soon as it is earned. All vacations require management approval and it is best to make your request as far in advance as possible.

In the event that a company-paid holiday occurs during a scheduled vacation, the holiday is not counted as a vacation day. Vacation days may not be converted to paid absence time in the event you become ill while on vacation.

Comp Time
Cobham endorses limited use of compensatory time off during the same workweek the absence is incurred. In general, if an employee needs to take a couple of hours off for a doctor appointment or for some other personal business, the employee may make up the time during the same work week, with management approval. The Cobham workweek runs from Sunday through Saturday.

Time Keeping
All of the above serves to underscore our responsibility as a defense contractor. It is essential that presence time and absence time be accurately reported. Timekeeping accuracy also directly affects the validity of our cost systems.

At Cobham, reporting your time accurately is a certification of how your time was spent. It is illegal to improperly shift costs (some of which is your labor) from one government contract to another. Falsifying time records is strictly prohibited.