Inclement weather guidelines for employees

The chancellor is responsible for determining if, for the safety and welfare of students and staff, classes will be postponed or some services suspended due to inclement weather. Some university services and functions must remain in operation regardless of weather conditions, e.g. University Housing, UW Police Department, power plant operations, etc.

University Communications staff will work with the chancellor to provide appropriate announcements to the media. Deans and directors should receive authorization from the Office of the Chancellor before directing employees not to report for work or sending employees home. Unless directed otherwise, employees are expected to report to work as scheduled. Each employee is expected to use discretion in determining if travel is safe. An employee who reasonably determines that travel would not be safe will not be subject to discipline for not reporting to work. Supervisors are expected to honor the reasonable requests of employees to arrive late or to leave early because of inclement weather. Employees are expected to make a reasonable effort to notify their supervisors if they cannot report to work or will report late.

Employees who are absent from work because of the inclement weather normally must use available annual leave (vacation), available holidays, leave without pay or, when appropriate, accrued compensatory time to cover the absence or must arrange with the supervisor to make up the time. Employees not exempt for overtime must account for each hour of scheduled duty. Employees exempt from overtime may account for their time in a manner consistent with their responsibilities, as approved by their supervisor.

If represented classified employees are directed not to report or are sent home they will be treated in accordance with the terms of their respective collective bargaining agreements. (Note: At this time some collective bargaining agreements provide that the employee will be compensated as if the time were worked when the employer directs employees to leave work or not to report to work.)

All employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements who are directed not to report or are sent home will normally be treated as follows:

• Classified (nonexempt from overtime) may use available annual leave (vacation), accrued compensatory time, available holidays or leave without pay to cover each hour absent. Nonexempt employees must account for each hour of employment. If an employee’s supervisor determines that the work unit can benefit from services provided by the employee at other than regularly scheduled times, the employee will be allowed to make up, during the remainder of the workweek, as much of the time as is beneficial to the work unit.
• Classified and Unclassified (exempt from overtime) may use available annual leave (vacation), available holidays, leave without pay or, when appropriate, compensatory time to cover the absence. An employee and the employee’s supervisor may agree that the employee may account for the time of the absences in another manner consistent with the exempt nature of the employee’s work assignment.