Skip to main content
Link to news home page
News

Regents change leave reporting rules

January 16, 2008

The UW System Board of Regents has passed resolutions that will change vacation, personal holiday and sick-leave reporting requirements and sick-leave accrual for unclassified staff.

  • Starting Jan. 1, sick leave, vacation and personal holiday leave for full-time unclassified employees will be charged in units of one-half days. Absence of one-quarter days up to three-quarters of a day will be charged as a half day. Absence of three-quarters of a day up to one and a quarter day will be charged as one day. Employees will less than full-time appointments will report actual hours absent when using sick, vacation and personal holiday leave.
  • Any employee who fails to file a report on leave usage as required by System policy in one or more months of any year will not be allowed to accrue sick leave for that year in an amount exceeding the cap established by s.40.05(4)(b.p.) 1, Wis. Stats. (i.e., 8.5 days for an annual appointee or 6.4 days for an academic-year appointee). This policy is effective with sick leave accrued in fiscal year 2007-08.
  • Effective with the beginning of the spring 2008 semester, teaching responsibilities not met because of an absence specified in UWS 19.01, Wis. Adm. Code, must be reported as leave, regardless of whether a qualified instructor covers the aforementioned responsibilities, which include class-time preparation, actual classroom instruction and scheduled office hours available to students for educational guidance.

Catharine DeRubeis in the Office of Human Resources says the biggest change is the decision to reduce sick-leave earnings for those unclassified employees who are not in compliance with the requirement to turn in monthly leave statements. Following a 1987 audit that imposed a cap on the amount of sick leave that could be used to pay for health insurance at retirement, layoff or death, UW System established a standard 40-hour workweek for leave reporting purposes and to develop a monthly leave statement to be filled out by all unclassified staff. In agreeing to those conditions, UW–Madison obtained a waiver to the cap, and unclassified staff have been able to convert all unused sick leave to pay for health insurance at retirement.

After a 2006 audit by the Legislative Audit Bureau found that not all institutions are in full compliance with the required reporting, the regents passed the resolution to reduce the amount of sick leave that can be carried over year to year and eventually used to pay for health insurance at retirement. The resolution is intended to ensure accountability for proper leave use, so UW–Madison can retain its waiver to the sick-leave cap.

To learn more, visit http://www.uwsa.edu/hr/benefits/leave/sick.htm.