Employee Matters

This column is prepared by staff from the Office of Human Resources. E-mail questions to benefits@ohr.wisc.edu or call 262-5650. For more information, visit http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/ecbs/ecbs.html.

Vacation, personal holiday and sick leave reporting

Effective Jan. 1, UW–Madison implemented three resolutions from the Board of Regents on vacation, personal holiday and sick leave reporting for faculty, academic staff and limited appointees:

• Starting this year, any faculty member, academic staff member or limited appointee who fails to file a leave report for one or more months of the fiscal year will have his/her total sick leave accrual reduced for that entire fiscal year to 8.5 days for annual employees and 6.4 days for academic year employees (leave amounts will be prorated for part-time employees). This reduction will occur on Aug. 15 of each year. Changes to the leave statement process will be made to ensure that employees are fully informed about their missing leave reports prior to the reduction.
• Effective Jan. 1, all leave (including vacation and personal holiday) must be charged in units of one-half days. Absences of one-quarter day up to and including three-fourths day shall be charged as one-half day (four hours). Absence of more than three-fourths day shall be charged as one day (eight hours).
• Effective this semester, teaching responsibilities not met because of an absence that would have required use of sick leave must be reported as leave, regardless of whether a qualified instructor covers the responsibilities. To be clear, this does not refer to those instances when a colleague covers the responsibilities of a faculty or academic staff member who is unable to do so because he or she is away from the university for business reasons.

Here are some frequently asked questions regarding the implications of these new policies:

Q: May faculty and academic staff make up time missed due to illness (for example, by working weekends)?

A: Regent policies do not allow time missed due to illness during the 40-hour standard work week to be made up. It must be reported as leave.

Q: If an employee misses four hours one day for reasons other than illness, can the time be made up on a different day?

A: Yes. Since the reason for the absence is not sick leave-related, the standard 40-hour week rule does not apply. It is up to the supervisor to determine whether the employee has met his/her responsibilities for the week.

Q: If an employee does not have to report absences of less than two hours per day, is it possible that an employee could work just over six hours a day, every day?

A: No. An employee is still responsible for requesting time off, and if a supervisor thinks that an employee is abusing the leave policy, it can be treated as a performance issue.

For more information, see the section on unclassified leave on the UW System Administration Sick Leave Web site.