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Short Term Disability (STD) benefits

Short Term Disability benefits on the ExxonMobil Disability Plan

Q. What benefits apply if I get sick, hurt or become pregnant?

A. The Plan pays benefits while you are unable to work because of a disability. Different schedules of benefits apply for industrial and non-industrial disabilities. The amount and duration of benefits depends on a number of factors. Coverage under other benefit plans continues according to the terms of those plans while you receive short-term disability benefits.

Short-term disability benefits and a family and medical leave act (FMLA) absence will run concurrently if all eligibility provisions for both are met.

Non-industrial disability benefits

These benefits are payable when you are unable to work due to pregnancy/childbirth, or illness or injury that is not work-related.

When added to basic payments, benefits equal either full or half disability pay in accordance with the schedule below. At the end of the full-pay period, half-pay benefits may be payable if you are expected to return to work within six months.

The length of your non-industrial disability benefit period depends on your years of benefit service. That service continues to grow throughout the disability benefit period. It is important to understand, however, that if you are not actively at work on your service anniversary date, you will not become eligible for any additional weeks of benefits based on the increase in your benefit service until you return to work.

Here is the Plan's non-industrial disability benefit schedule:

Years of Benefit Service Maximum Weeks of
Full Pay Half Pay
< 1 6 0
1 6 4
2 8 6
3 10 6
4 12 8
5 16 10
6 16 15
7 16 20
8 16 25
9 16 30
10 or more 26 26

Example 1:

You have four years of benefit service and are injured off the job and you are unable to work. Under the non-industrial disability benefits schedule, based on your service, you may be eligible for full-pay benefits for up to twelve weeks and half-pay benefits for up to eight weeks.

This means that if you are unable to work for 15 weeks, you may receive full-pay benefits for twelve weeks and half-pay benefits for three weeks. The schedule would be reduced by any disability days you have used during the previous 26 weeks (see Industrial disability benefits - requalification section for information on requalifying for the full schedule).

Example 2:

You have two years of benefit service and you are at the end of your eighth month of pregnancy. You have used five days (one week) of disability in the previous 20 weeks. You develop complications and are no longer able to work so you receive disability benefits. After two weeks on disability, you deliver your baby by C-section and continue to be unable to work for 8 weeks following delivery.

Under the non-industrial disability benefits schedule, based on your service and the number of days recently used prior to the birth of your child, you may be eligible for full-pay benefits for five weeks after the birth of your child.  This would exhaust your eight weeks of full-pay benefits.  The remaining three weeks of your absence would be under your half-pay schedule.

Non-industrial disability benefits — requalification

Separate periods of absence due to non-industrial disability are added together to determine when you have exhausted your schedule of benefits.

You requalify for the full schedule of non-industrial benefits by working a total of 26 weeks since the last time you received full-pay non-industrial disability benefits. If you become disabled again before that 26 week period is completed— whether it is the same non-industrial disability or a different one — your schedule of benefits is only that portion of the schedule you have not already used. When you are receiving half-pay non-industrial disability benefits, separate periods of active employment following the end of full-pay non-industrial disability benefits are added together to determine when you have worked a total of 26 weeks and re-qualify for the full schedule of non-industrial benefits.

If you are still unable to work at the end of the non-industrial disability benefit period, what happens next depends on whether you are expected to recover and return to work.

If you are expected to recover, special disability benefits may be payable. If you are not expected to recover, you are separated from ExxonMobil service. If you had one year of benefit service at the time you became disabled, long-term disability benefits may be payable.

Non-industrial disability — special disability benefits

If you exhaust your full-pay and half-pay non-industrial disability benefit schedule and you are likely to be able to return to work within six months, special disability benefits may be payable.

Your employer decides if and when these special disability benefits are paid. The benefit amount is half pay, reduced by any government benefit being paid. Generally, these benefits may only be approved when the absence due to disability is unexpected.

Industrial disability benefits

These benefits are payable when you are disabled due to a work-related illness or injury.

If you are disabled because of an illness or injury related to your ExxonMobil work, regardless of the length of your service, you are eligible for industrial disability benefits for up to 52 weeks. The industrial disability benefits, when added to basic payments, is equal to your disability pay

Example:

You make $5,000 a month, are injured on the job and cannot work due to this injury. You are off work for four months. Because this is an industrial injury, you are eligible for full-pay benefits of $5,000 a month for the four months you are off work.

During this time, you receive $1,500 a month in workers' compensation. The Disability Plan pays $3,500 to bring your total monthly income to $5,000 for the four months you are off work.

If you are partially disabled as a result of an industrial injury or occupational illness — that is, you are able to work but cannot perform the full scope of the job you held at the time you became disabled — disability benefits are paid for a maximum of 16 weeks. The benefit amount equals the difference between your disability pay for your previous assignment and the pay for the work to which you are assigned.

Industrial disability benefits — requalification

You requalify for the full schedule of industrial disability benefits when you have been back to work and receiving your regular pay for at least 26 weeks following receipt of benefits for that particular industrial disability. If you become disabled again because of the same ExxonMobil-work-related illness or injury before being back to work for 26 weeks, your schedule of benefits is only the portion of the schedule you have not already used. If the second industrial disability involves a different ExxonMobil-work-related illness or injury, you have the full schedule of industrial disability benefits available.

If you are still unable to work at the end of the industrial disability benefit period, what happens next depends on whether you are expected to recover and return to work.

If you are expected to recover, special disability benefits may be payable. If you are not expected to recover, you are separated from ExxonMobil service. If you had one year of benefit service at the time you became disabled, long-term disability benefits may be payable.

Industrial disability — special disability benefits

If you exhaust the 52 weeks of industrial disability benefits and you are likely to be able to return to work within six months, special disability benefits may be payable. Your employer decides if and when these special disability benefits are paid. The benefit amount is your disability pay, reduced by any government benefit or government disability benefit being paid.

State disability benefits

Employees in some states may have legally required state disability coverage. Benefits from these combine with Short-Term Disability Plan benefits so that payments from all sources do not exceed your level of disability pay.

Family medical leave

Approval of a day as Family Medical Leave does not automatically qualify the day as eligible for short term disability benefits. An employee who is absent for his or her own serious health condition must meet all Short Term Disability Plan requirements in order to have the day qualify as an absence with short term disability benefits.

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