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Decision made on snow closure make-up time (Updated Feb. 10)

U niversity employees will be required to account for all the work time they missed in January because of bad weather. But the range of options has been expanded for the record-breaking snowfall that closed the University or delayed its opening from Jan. 25 to Jan. 28.

State Personnel Director Ron Penny has issued two additional options to the state's Adverse Weather Policy for these four days. They are:

* Charging lost time to accrued sick leave; and

* Allowing time to be made up within 24 months rather than 12.

Employees who missed time on other days must follow the state's existing Adverse Weather Policy. The policy only allows lost time to be made up by charging it to vacation leave, unpaid leave, accumulated compensatory time, accumulated equal time off (time an employee accrues for having to work on a University holiday), accumulated travel time off (earned when traveling during hours outside their regular schedules) or adverse weather time, which is time that employees must make up.

Employees will only have 12 months to make up lost hours outside the Jan. 25-28 period.

Salaried employees, who are exempt from the overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) can make up the time they missed by working additional hours without any restrictions. They should still coordinate their make-up time schedule with their supervisors.

Hourly workers, covered by the FLSA, who choose to code the missed time as adverse weather time can make up time during weeks in which they have not worked 40 hours.

For instance, in a week that includes a one-day paid holiday (or eight hours of vacation or sick leave) an hourly employee could work off up to eight hours of the adverse weather debt. Because this would be time the employee already would have been paid for, he or she would not get additional pay for working those eight hours.

Under state policy, hourly (non-exempt) workers cannot work voluntary overtime to make up their missed time because -- to comply with the FLSA's overtime provisions -- that would mean compensating them at time-and-a-half, either in pay or comp time, for hours worked beyond 40 in a work week.

And that would mean they would get compensated at a rate higher than the one for the time they missed. For instance, someone who worked 50 hours in a week to make up 10 hours of adverse weather time would actually receive compensation for an extra 15 hours (10 hours x 1.5).

So in essence, the state would be compensating the employee for 15 hours but would only be getting back 10 hours of work from the employee. Given that, state -- and therefore University -- policy ban voluntary overtime as a way to make up adverse weather time.

"From a business standpoint, the state policy precludes an employee from working off adverse weather debt with fewer hours than actually were missed," said Ken Litowsky, policy director for Carolina.

Making up classes

As for making up class days missed because of snow, Carolina students will attend classes on three weekend days, Interim Chancellor William O. McCoy announced Feb. 7.

Classes will be held Feb. 27, March 25 and April 8 to make up for time lost Jan. 25-27 respectively. The make-up days are required based on a UNC General Administration policy that calls for all UNC schools to have at least 150 instructional days each academic year.

Although department chairs may request certain staff members to be available on the make-up days if instructors have special needs, staff generally are not expected to work on those days.

McCoy and Provost Richard "Dick" Richardson met with members of the Student Advisory Committee to the Chancellor and representatives from several campus schools for input on the make-up plan.

Classes will be held as normal on make-up days, although administrators have asked faculty members not to give exams on those days. Classes will meet at their regular times and in the same rooms as originally scheduled unless otherwise announced.

For future reference

Employees are reminded of these major points about the University's Adverse Weather Policy:

* The University always is open unless closed by the chancellor or his designee; and

* In cases where bad weather exists but the University remains open, individual employees decide whether to come to work based on weather conditions in the Chapel Hill area and their home communities (except for employees designated as "critical," who must report to work as scheduled).

In the event of adverse weather, employees should listen to their local radio and/or TV station for information specifically about the University. Information about state government offices does not apply to the University, and employees should not rely on it.

Employees should keep in mind that local broadcast media typically only report operating schedule closings, changes and delays -- if nothing is reported, it means the University is open.

Employees also can check these other sources for status reports:

* The Adverse Weather Hotline -- 685-8100 (toll free in the Triangle area);

* The University home page -- http://www.unc.edu;

* WNJW Radio -- 1610 AM (near Chapel Hill); and

* Public safety's home page link for parking and transit status -- http://main.psafety.unc.edu/publicsafety/Adverse%20Weather/Parkingaw.HTML

For more information about the University's Adverse Weather Policy, call Human Resources Administration at 2-3894 or go to http://www.ais.unc.edu/hr/admin/advweath.htm


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