Procedure IV.4000.Q.a, Vacation

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Procedure  

Employees of the College, who do not take additional time off between the various parts of term, and whose regular employment status covers a period of 12 months are eligible for vacation leave each fiscal year. Additional work assignments or summer employment will not be used to compute earned vacation time nor will previous part-time employment be used to compute years of service with the College for vacation purposes. Previous full-time employment with the College will be used to compute years of service for vacation purposes for those employees with a break in service if the break in service is not longer than one year.

Eligible employees are credited with the total annual vacation accrual at the beginning of each fiscal year. For example, an employee accruing vacation at a rate of 6.67 hours per month will receive 80 hours in September for the fiscal year. The initial/beginning vacation balance for employees hired during the middle of a fiscal year is pro-rated based on the monthly accrual rate as shown in the following table for the number of months remaining in the fiscal year.

*Years of service must be full-time, continuous employment.

The anniversary date for determining the years of service with the College for vacation purposes will be September 1 of the fiscal year. Those employees whose first date of employment is between September 1 and the first working day of March (inclusive) during a fiscal year will have an anniversary date of September 1 of that fiscal year. Those employees whose first date of employment is after the first working day of March of a fiscal year will work for the remainder of that fiscal year plus the next fiscal year before receiving credit for one year of service for vacation purposes. On September 1 of the beginning of the ninth year with the College, an employee is eligible for 120 hours of vacation. On September 1 of the beginning of the sixteenth year of service with the College, an employee is eligible for 160 hours of vacation; likewise on September 1 of the beginning of the twenty-fifth year of service with the College, an employee is eligible for 200 hours of vacation.

New employees will receive credit for vacation purposes for their first month of employment only if they physically work the first working day of that month. Otherwise, for calculations of vacation hours, the first working day of the next month will be used. An employee who terminates will receive vacation credit for the final month of employment if the last day worked is on or after the 15th of a month.

Vacation time accrues for each month actually worked. Eligible employees will not receive vacation credit for any month that they are not at work and not using their own leave accruals.

The scheduling of vacations is a collaborative effort between the employee and leader and must be approved by the employee’s leader. Times will occur when the business needs of the College, registration for example, affect the scheduling of vacations. Leaders will notify employees about these business times in advance to the extent possible for each business area. Employees may take vacation hours prior to actually having earned them, subject to the approval of their leader. However, they do so with the understanding that if they terminate employment prior to the end of the fiscal year, unearned vacation time taken will be deducted from their last payroll check. Vacation requests in excess of three consecutive weeks, in addition to leadership approval, must have prior approval of the campus Provost, or the respective Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) member.

Earned, unused vacation hours may be rolled over from one fiscal year to the next. The maximum amount of vacation accrual an employee may have on the books may not exceed two times the amount eligible to be earned each year. Employees may be paid for vacation hours upon termination of employment, the lesser of one year’s accrual for the employee’s years of service or the actual balance of vacation hours at separation. For purposes of vacation guidelines, actual balance is defined as carryover from one year to the next, plus current year’s accrual, prorated for the termination date. For example, an employee earning a maximum of two weeks a year may be paid for only two weeks at separation, regardless of how many vacation hours are shown in the leave balance. 

Employees funded by a grant must use all accrued vacation by the end of the grant funding year.

Vacation pay will be calculated at the current work schedule and salary in effect for the employee at the time the vacation is actually taken. Employees who terminate and have unused, accrued vacation time, earned during the current fiscal year, will be paid for that time at their current rate of pay.

Part-time employees that work for 12 months will not accrue vacation hours.

*The accounting period for vacation is September 1 – August 31 of the fiscal year.