Office of Human Resources

3/30/2020; 9:25AM

Instructions for Time Reporting and Application of Paid Administrative Leave for Student and Non-Student Temporary Employees for the Period March 16 – March 31, 2020.

On March 18, we announced that UNC System Interim President Roper had authorized paid administrative leave for university employees, including temporary and student employees, for certain COVID-19-related absences, effective from March 16 through March 31.  You can find that communication here. 

As noted in the communication, student employees and non-student temporary employees who qualify will be paid administrative leave for these two weeks based on their average hours worked during the month of February 2019.  Since some students and non-student temporary employees performed work during the period, we need to reconcile these hours with the February average to make certain every eligible employee is paid the proper amount.  For this purpose:

• Student employees and non-student temporary employees who performed work between March 16 and March 31, either on campus or remotely, will need to enter only their actual hours worked into their normal timekeeping system and submit the hours for approval just as they would during normal operations.

• The University Payroll Office will provide all time approvers with a list of their student and non-student temporary employees and their average hours worked in February for validation of eligibility.

• Once eligibility is validated, the Payroll Office will reconcile each employee’s February average and any actual hours worked to determine the proper administrative leave payment.

• Paid administrative leave hours will be loaded into the payroll system for processing by the Payroll Office.

To be eligible for paid administrative leave, student and non-student temporary employees must have been unable to perform scheduled work during the period for one or more of the following COVID-19-related reasons:

1. They were not directed to report to work on campus, they could not telework because their job duties could be performed remotely, and there was no reasonable alternate telework available.
2. They could not work because they had childcare or eldercare needs due to COVID-19-related school, childcare, eldercare or other facility closure.
3. They were sick specifically with symptoms of a cold, flu or COVID-19, or were caring for someone with these specific symptoms.

Paid administrative leave does not apply to work time missed for any other reason (for example, if the employee voluntarily left employment prior to March 16 or missed work due to illness other than symptoms of a cold, flu or COVID-19).

The University Payroll and Business System Offices have calculated a baseline for all student and non-student temporary employees, based on average hours worked during the two semi-monthly payroll periods for February 2020 by time sheet org code.  These data will be provided to each appropriate time approver.

All student and non-student temporary employees who performed any work between March 16 and March 31 must enter their actual hours worked in their regular timekeeping system and submit them for approval, just as they would under normal operations.

Students and non-student temporary employees should not enter any projected or expected hours, only actual hours worked, if any.

Department time approvers, working with management as necessary, are responsible to:

1. Review the February active employee list provided by Payroll, determine if each employee on the list is eligible for administrative leave, based on the above criteria.

2. Any employees who started work after February 29, 2020 will not be included in the February baseline data. For these employees, determined eligible for administrative leave and then add eligible employees to the list, including:

• Employee name
• Banner ID
• Employment start date
• Average number of hours each the employee was expected to work each week.

3. Return validated worksheets to Payroll by 5:00 p.m. on April 1.
4. Review and approve the timesheets for actual hours worked from March 16 to March 31 as usual. This includes hours worked on campus as well as any hours worked remotely.

After receiving validated reports from each department, Payroll and Business Systems will:

• Run a report for actual hours entered and approved for the March 16 - 31 pay period.

• For all eligible employees calculate the difference between February average hours worked (baseline) and actual hours worked, if any, for the March 16 - 31 pay period.

• Upload the differences between actual hours worked and the February baseline hours into Banner as administrative leave hours.  If actual hours worked were greater than the average February hours, the employee will be paid for the actual hours worked but no administrative leave.

• Resume the regular payroll process to complete the SM payroll.