Accrual Rates
Eligible Full-time Employees:
Accrue sick leave at the rate of 144 hours or 18 days per year. The monthly accrual rate is 12 hours or 1 1/2 days.
- All eligible full-time faculty holding academic year appointments accrue sick leave at the rate of 15 days per academic year. If employed during the summer, the faculty member will accrue an additional 12 hours of sick leave for each month of employment during June and July.
Eligible Part-time Employees:
Accrue sick leave at their fractional equivalent of full-time employment.
- Example: If an employee works 60% time, they will accrue sick leave at 60% of a full-time employee (144 hours * 60% = 86.4 hours or 7.2 hours accrued every month).
Sick leave does accrue:
- During any period of service, if an eligible employee is in pay status.
- During a period of absence for which a staff member is paid sick leave, and may be used during that particular illness period.
- A partial month's accrual is computed based on the number of working days in the month.
Sick leave does not accrue:
- When there is less than one day of service.
- During terminal vacation, nor is sick leave allowed during terminal vacation.
Usage Details
Sick leave credits are used at the rate of one hour for each hour of absence.
The use of sick leave is not permitted more than currently accumulated sick leave credits.
Although sick leave accrues during the first month of employment, no usage is permitted until after one month of service.
Holidays and Vacation
Holidays that fall during a period of absence due to a medically related disability are paid as holidays and not charged to the employee's sick leave accumulation.
If an employee becomes ill while on vacation, the employee may use sick leave for those days the employee is under the care of a physician. (Requires satisfactory documentation of such care).
Family Caregiving Leave
Accrued sick leave is to be used for family caregiving leave. The university may request appropriate verification of the status of the ill or injured person.
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The maximum usage per year of family caregiving leave (Reference Family Caregiving Leave, Operations Manual) includes the current calendar year allowance of up to five days of sick leave (40 hours of sick leave based on full-time employment, pro-rated for part-time), as well as any unused allowance from the previous calendar year, up to 80 hours in total (pro-rated for part-time) for the care of and necessary attention to ill or injured members of the employee's immediate family.
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Carryover of the unused allowance from the previous year applies to employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement only if the benefit has been negotiated and is contained in the agreement.
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If the employee does not have accrued sick leave, family caregiving leave is not available. However, the department or unit is encouraged to permit the faculty or staff member to use vacation or leave without pay to respond to family-related responsibilities.
Funeral Leave
The employee may use accumulated sick leave not to exceed 3 days for each occurrence (Reference Funeral Leave, University Operations Manual). Accumulated sick leave used to serve as a pallbearer may not exceed 1 day for each occurrence.
Transfer Sick Leave to Vacation
Eligible employees are those permanent full-time and part-time employees who are not faculty members with nine-month appointments, who are otherwise eligible for accrued vacation and sick leave benefits, and who have accumulated a minimum of 240 hours in their sick-leave account. Part-time employees shall be prorated to the accrual rate for full-time employees.
Employees who do not use sick leave for a full calendar month may elect to add up to one-half day (4 hours) of vacation to their accrued vacation account in place of adding up to one and one-half days (12 hours) to their accrued sick leave account.
Employees who elect to convert unused sick leave to vacation will not accumulate more than twice the possible annual amount of converted vacation, or twelve days (96 hours), but will be allowed to accumulate that amount in addition to twice their annual vacation entitlement.
Begin Transferring Sick Leave
The employee's vacation maximum will increase by the transfer amount each month until the final maximum is achieved. An eligible employee must have at least 240 hours in their sick leave bank.
To elect additional vacation leave in place of sick leave:
- Employees must notify their supervisor by the tenth of the month following the calendar month in which there has been no sick leave usage.
- Employees may also make a one-time election (via their employee time record) to automatically convert sick leave to vacation leave each month they are eligible. The election will remain in effect until the employee notifies their supervisor (via their employee time record) to cancel the original election.
Once an election to transfer sick leave to vacation has been selected and processed through a monthly payroll cycle, the election is irrevocable.
- For Merit and P&S non-exempt employees reporting on a biweekly time record, the sick to vacation transfer election will be effective on the last day of the biweekly pay period when the request is made on the employee time record.
For example, if a sick transfer election for the 03/21/21 - 04/03/21 biweekly period is selected, the sick transfer to vacation option would apply to the month of April.
If the use of sick leave reduces an employee's sick leave account below 240 hours, the account will have to be built up to 240 hours before eligibility for vacation conversion under this program is restored.
Please note:
- Upon termination, a sick leave transfer to vacation election, set to convert every month possible, will be automatically canceled. If rehired, the employee will need to make a new election to begin the transfer of sick leave to vacation again, based on eligibility.
- Retroactive adjustments are not allowed.