Vacation, Holidays & Leave

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.

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.

Upon receiving termination paperwork from the employee's department, an employee is paid out any remaining annual leave hours on 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.

When a person donates leave, they complete the DocuSign Donated Leave Form   /   Donated Leave Form  /   Donated Leave-Employee Consent To Release Name 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.

Receiving Donated Leave

In order to receive donated leave, you have to exhaust all of your sick and annual leave balances. After discussing your situation with your supervisor, a letter should be sent to the Senior HR Manager for FMLA, 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 Senior HR Manager, employees can begin to donate sick and annual 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.

Giving Donating Leave

• 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.
• 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 annual balance.
• Employees must be  approved to receive donated leave. Employees cannot donate leave to co-workers who have not met the requirements for leave donations.

Shared Leave Policy

End of Year Use or Lose Donations for Annual Leave

When nearing the end of the calendar year, employees can only carry over 240 hours (prorated for part time) of Annual Leave, into the next calendar year. If you have more than 240 hours, you can donate them to a “pool” of hours that may be utilized by employees who have been approved for donated leave but have not received enough donated hours for a pay period.

If you are interested in donating to the “Pool”, please follow these steps:

• Complete the donated leave form
  • Only complete the middle section with your information and the number of hours you would like to donate.  You do not need to have a supervisor sign it. 
  • Send the form to Joanne Barstad, barstad@UND.edu

End of the year donations forms need to be turned in by the first Paysheet Creation Day in January. Please check the calendar to find the correct due date.