Staff Handbook

(Board Policy 420.1, 420.2; Universitywide Administrative Memorandum 435.2, 435.3; Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 415.0; AHRMS Policy Manual 105-2)

If you work 1,000 hours or more per year in an appointed classified position, and you are not employed in a student title (such as Student Assistant, Professional Student Assistant, Graduate Assistant, Senior Graduate Assistant, or Master Lecturer), you earn annual leave. If you are a full-time employee, you earn annual leave in accordance with the following schedule. If you are not full-time, but work 1,000 hours or more per year, you earn annual leave in proportion to the time you work.

If you work 1,000 hours or more per year in a regular appointed non-classified position that is listed as a 12-month position in the University's appropriation act, you earn annual leave. If you work full-time (100% appointment), you earn annual leave at the rate of 15 hours per month or 22.5 days per year. If you work less than full-time in a 12-month non-classified position, but your appointment is 50% or greater, you earn annual leave at that rate, in proportion to the time you work.

Annual leave is cumulative and is added to your annual leave balance as it is earned; however, you may not have more than 30 days (240 hours) on January 1 of each year. Your total accumulated leave may exceed 30 days during the year, but any amount over 30 days is lost if not used by December 31 of each year. If you are a non-exempt employee and your annual leave accumulation is 240 hours or more for the current and the previous month, leave usage that would ordinarily be charged to compensatory time will be charged to annual leave, to help you avoid losing annual leave on January 1 of the next year. Your compensatory time balance will remain available for you to use.

If you transfer to the University from another state agency or institution of higher education, without a break in service, you retain and transfer all of your accumulated annual leave. Your prior service will also be figured into the rate at which you earn annual leave, shown on the chart above. You will receive one year's credit for each full year that you have worked in another state agency or institution of higher education. You will not, however, receive credit for partial years.

Annual leave must be earned before it can be used. You may not borrow from amounts you expect to earn, and you may not use annual leave earned by other employees. You continue to earn annual leave at your normal earning rate when you are on leave with pay. You do not earn annual leave during a month when you are on leave without pay for ten or more days, or an equivalent proportion if your appointment is less than 100%.

You may request annual leave at any time, but your request must be made in advance and must be approved by your supervisor. Your supervisor may require that you take annual leave at those times when it will be most convenient for and least disruptive to your department or work unit. Annual leave is granted on a basis of work days, not calendar days. Non-work days, such as weekends and holidays, which fall within a period when you are using annual leave are not charged against your annual leave. If you exhaust your earned annual leave, you may use compensatory leave, but you may not use sick leave or other forms of leave for annual leave purposes. However, annual leave will be used if you are sick or an immediate family member whom you must care for is sick and you have used all of your sick leave. In the BASIS system, when sick leave is exhausted, additional sick days are charged against annual leave.

If you end your employment with the University for any reason, including termination, retirement, resignation, or death, your final pay will include a lump sum payment for any accrued but unused annual leave, up to, but not exceeding 30 days (240 hours) or 60 days (480 hours) in the case of death. The BASIS Leave Accounting system credits your full monthly accrual of annual leave at the first of each month. If you end employment with the University, your last month's annual leave accrual will be pro-rated to reflect your actual termination date. If you receive a lump sum payment for annual leave, you may not return to University employment until the number of days for which you received annual leave payment have elapsed.

If you are a twelve-month employee and are scheduled to change to a nine-month appointment, you must take all of your accrued, unused annual leave before the end of the twelve-month appointment period. Your employment period cannot be extended to compensate you for unused annual leave when you change from a twelve-month to a nine-month appointment and you cannot receive a lump sum payment for unused annual leave unless you are terminating your employment with the University.