Temporary Advancement of Time-Off Policy to Limit Exposure to the Novel H1N1 Virus
For additional information about Duke's temporary advancement of time-off policy, please see Questions & Answers.
The current lack of immunity to the novel H1N1 virus in the general population, the return of students to campus and the advent of the seasonal flu season increases the
probability of an influenza outbreak at Duke this fall. As a result, Duke has introduced a temporary policy to help provide continuous pay up to a designated maximum for staff
who have exhausted their accrued leave to help limit the exposure of the virus on its campuses.
Policy
Staff who have flu-like symptoms (distinguished by a fever of 100 degrees or more) and have exhausted their accrued time can receive a one-time advancement of wages
equivalent to up to 3 days of Sick Leave or Paid Time Off (short-term bank) based on their regular daily work schedule. Advanced time off will be deducted from a staff member's
subsequent pay period accrual for Sick Time or PTO (short-term bank) until the balance returns to zero.
Effective Period
The temporary policy will be effective from September 1, 2009, through March 31, 2010. The policy will be reevaluated next spring to determine if it should be extended.
Eligibility Requirements
- Staff member must have flu-like symptoms, including a fever of 100 degrees or higher.
- Staff member must be benefits eligible.
- Staff member must have completed their 90-day orientation period, during which they cannot use accrued time off. Staff who have transferred internally and are within their 90-day trial period are eligible.
- Staff member must not be on a leave of absence (full leave). If a staff member is on intermittent leave and schedule to work, then the policy would apply.
- University staff members must have zero balances in their vacation, sick, and discretionary holiday balances.
- DUHS staff members must have zero balances in their short-term, long-term, and carry-over banks.
- The advancing of time off applies only to staff who experience flu-like symptoms; it cannot be used to care for family members.
- The advancing of time off may only be requested once during the Effective Period of the temporary policy.
Procedures
The policy is applicable to all benefit eligible staff. For exempt staff (monthly-paid), the advancement and subsequent deductions should be maintained at the department level consistent with current practices. The process for nonexempt staff (biweekly-paid) is described below:
- If a staff member meets all of the eligibility criteria noted above, the University and DUHS will advance up to three days of sick leave or short term PTO based upon their daily work schedule as recorded in the Payroll master. Note: staff members may elect not to take advantage of this opportunity. If so, they can record the time as unpaid hours.
| Daily Work Schedule |
Maximum Advance for Sick Leave or Short Term Bank |
| 8 hours |
24 hours |
| 10 hours |
30 hours |
| 12 hours |
36 hours |
- Managers will designate the "sick leave/STB advance" time off reason code to indicate on the time card the number of hours the staff member should be advanced.
- The advanced hours will be paid to the staff member. Any accrued hours applied to the sick leave balance or the short-term bank (PTO) will be reversed until the staff member has repaid the number of hours for which he/she was advanced.
- The pay period accrual rate for sick leave based upon a pay period of 80 hours paid is 3.692 hours. The accrual rate for DUHS staff short-term bank based upon 80 hours paid is 9.23 for less than 4 years of service. As a result, it will take staff members approximately 4 - 10 biweekly pay periods (3-5 months) to repay the time off advance depending upon the number of hours advanced and the accrual rate.
- Staff will be given a maximum of 6 months to repay the time off advance or the remaining amount due will be deducted from the staff member's payroll check.
- If a staff member terminates prior to the repayment of the advanced time off, the remaining amount due will be deducted from the staff member's final payroll check/voucher.
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