3/30/20; 3:51PM
UNC System Interim President Roper has authorized UNC System campuses to continue the payment of paid administrative leave to employees who cannot work due to COVID-19 through April 30, 2020. In addition, the President directed UNC System campuses to provide additional consideration to employees who are designated as mandatory to maintain essential operations during this time.
This is welcome news as we proceed to quickly limit on-campus staffing to staff who are required to be on campus to maintain essential operations or care for the students who remain on campus, in response Governor Cooper’s March 27 Stay-at-Home Order.
Paid Administrative Leave:
This extended paid administrative leave will apply to permanent staff, student employees and non-student temporary employees who are not specifically designated as mandatory to maintain essential campus operations and who cannot perform work remotely. In addition, the extended paid leave will continue to apply to permanent staff, student employees and non-student temporary employees who are:
- Unable to work due to childcare or eldercare needs created by school or other facility closures; or
- Experiencing symptoms of a cold, flu or COVID-19.
Paid administrative leave will be paid at each eligible employee’s regular rate of pay.
Permanent staff paid monthly will be provided with an administrative leave code to use when completing their time sheets or leave reports for April payroll. Specific instructions will be provided closer to April payroll processing. We need to create as complete a record as possible of all administrative paid leave applied beginning March 16. This includes any time employees worked less than their regular hours because of COVID-19, whether working on campus or teleworking.
Student employees and non-student temporary employees will, for the two semi-monthly payroll periods in April, follow the same payroll process as for the period from March 16 - 31. Those instructions are posted on the Office of Human Resources COVID-19 website here.)
Compensatory Time for Mandatory Staff:
Beginning April 1, staff designated as mandatory and required to perform work on campus between April 1 and April 30 will be provided ½ hour of compensatory time for each hour of mandatory work performed. The compensatory time will accrue as a paid leave balance. Accrued compensatory leave hours will have cash value and any hours not used within twelve months will be paid out at the staff member’s regular rate of pay at the time of the payout. Our goal will be to pay out unused balances as soon as financially feasible, potentially even incrementally, but not later than within twelve months.
This compensatory time award applies only to permanent leave-earning staff. It does not apply to employees who are performing work remotely but will apply to any work an employee is required to perform on campus, even if only periodically.
This compensatory time award also does not apply to Tier I and Tier II senior academic and administrative officers, faculty, physicians, directors and deputy directors of major institution‐wide or school‐wide functions and centers, department heads, division heads, research and academic department administrators, clinical and academic department administrators, clinical division administrators, coaches or athletic administrators.