Leave FAQs
Below are some commonly asked questions about taking leave.
Terminating Employment
When terminating employment, what happens to my annual and sick leave hours on record?
Upon receiving termination paperwork from the employee's department, an employee is paid out any remaining annual leave hours the pay period after their final check. This is figured by the hourly rate times hours of annual leave. An employee is paid out sick leave hours ONLY if he/she has been employed for 10 years or more. If that is the case, the employee is paid 10% of the total sick leave hours still on record times the hourly rate. (If a terminating employee is negative in either sick or annual leave hours, it will be taken from their final paycheck.)
I just started back to UND after being gone for 11 months. Can I get back any of the sick leave I had accumulated when I terminated 11 months ago?
Yes. If you terminate and return to any North Dakota State agency within one year, you can get back any sick leave hours that were not paid out to you when you terminated. Your years of service from your previous employment will be adjusted for the period of absence. This means that you will start earning annual leave at the same rate you earned when you terminated.
Leave without Pay
Can I take leave without pay?
Yes. The department will need to send paperwork to the payroll office indicating what dates the employee is taking without pay. If the employee is to be gone a few days in the pay period, the salary is again figured on a percentage basis (the number of days worked divided by the days in the pay period). If the employee is on Leave of Absence for a number of hours, then it will be figured by the hourly rate times hours not worked and subtracted from the pay period salary. If the employee will be on Leave of Absence for an entire pay period or more, his/her paycheck will be stopped entirely until the department indicates that the employee is returning to work.
Annual Leave
My leave card looks like 8 hours annual leave had been deducted twice. My check stub shows a "8.0-" for annual leave. What should I do about this?
When an amount of sick or annual leave shows up in the area "deducted this pay period" on the check stub with a (-) minus symbol, it means that the amount was subtracted from the taken year to date and added to the balance. If you check your balances from the previous paycheck, you will see the correction in your balance.
Last month was my anniversary month with UND and I had been here 6 years. Shouldn't my annual leave earning rate have gone up?
All full time employees start with 8 hours of annual leave per month. After completing 3 full years, you go to 10 hours per month. After completing 7 full years, you go to 12 hours per month. After completing 12 full years, you go to 14 hours per month. After completing 18 full years, you go to 16 hours per month and that is the cap for earning.
Annual and sick leave accrual amounts are calculated on your percentage of full time. If you are a 75% of full time employee, your leave is calculated on 75% of the full time earning rate.
I turned in a dependent leave form for 80 hours and you took 60 hours of dependent leave and 20 hours of annual leave. Why?
Our records indicate that you had already taken 20 hours of dependent sick leave. Since the maximum allowable per calendar year is 80 hours, the balance would have to be taken from annual leave.
Personal sick leave is for your illness, not your dependents. UND allows employees to take 80 hours per year of our existing sick leave balance for time we need off due to the illness of an eligible dependent. Previous to this policy, any time we needed off due to the illness of a dependent had to be turned in as annual leave.
My check stub says that I have to use 60 hours before December 31 or I will lose it. I have not been able to take my annual leave this year because my office has been so busy. Do I still have to lose this time?
Yes. There are no exceptions to the use or lose policy.
Donated Leave
I want to know if I can have sick leave donated to me. What do I have to do?
In order to receive donated leave, you have to exhaust all of your sick and vacation leave balances. After discussing your situation with your supervisor, a letter should be sent to the Director of Human Resources & Payroll Services, describing your situation and the need for extended leave. This letter should be accompanied by a letter from your doctor explaining your inability to work and estimated date of return to work. Upon approval by the HR/Payroll Director, employees can begin to donate sick and vacation time to you. You can receive 693 hours in a one-year period, (prorated for part-time employees). If an employee donates leave to you, it is given to your annual leave balance or sick leave balance, depending on the type of leave donated.
I want to donate sick leave to a co-worker. How much can I donate?
You can donate 5% (or less) of your current sick leave balance and any amount of your annual leave as long as you maintain an annual leave balance of 40 hours.
I just donated sick leave to a co-worker. Now, another co-worker is in need of donated leave. Can I donate sick or annual leave to this co-worker if I just donated to another?
Yes. You can donate to as many co-workers as you want regardless of when you last donated. You just have to follow the policy of donating 5% (or less) of your current sick leave balance and any amount of your annual leave as long as you leave yourself with 40 hours of vacation balance.
How does the donation of sick/annual leave from one employee to another work?
The Shared Leave Policy can be found on: https://ndus.edu/human-resource-policy-manual/ , Section 20.6.
The procedure at UND is as follows: When a person donates leave, they complete the donated leave form and send it to the recipient’s supervisor. The supervisor will verify that all accrued leave has been used and will send the donated leave forms to Payroll for processing, as they are needed by the recipient.
The person who has donated leave and the recipient will know the transaction has taken place by seeing the adjustment on their pay stub in self-service. There may be a delay in seeing the donation, due to an employee using accrued leave or other donated leave. Any donated leave deposited into the recipient’s account will be retained by the recipient. However, any donated leave not deposited into the recipient’s account will be returned to the donor. Per 20.6.5 Any donated leave may only be used by the recipient for the purposes specified within this policy and is not payable in cash. Therefore, if the recipient terminated employment, they will not be paid out any donated leave in cash.
My daughter also works for UND and is low on her annual leave balance. Can I give her some of my annual leave?
Only if she has been approved to receive donated leave. Employees cannot donate leave to co-workers who have not met the requirements for leave donations.
Reporting Leave
Where and how do I report any leave time I have taken from my job?
All requested leave must be approved by the supervisor prior to taking the leave.
To report an absence login to HRMS and navigate to:
Self-Service > Time Reporting > Report Time > Absence Request.
- Enter date of leave
- Select leave type (annual, sick, jury, comptime, dependent, funeral, military)
- Enter end date of leave
- If any time in the leave is a partial day select the correct time of what was a partial day (ex. start day only, end day only)
- If partial day enter number of hours taken on that partial day(s)
- Calculate duration
- Submit or save for later