302 Recess Days [policy change as of July 1, 2010]
The Friday after Thanksgiving, the last weekday before the day officially observed as the Christmas holiday, and the working days that fall between Christmas and New Year's Day are considered recess days on which most employees are not required to work. They are not holidays. Regular employees scheduled to work 20 hours or more each week will receive pay for University recess days.
Except for those departments, laboratories, libraries, and offices that must remain open to maintain services during the Christmas period, all parts of the University will observe a common recess period.
If a recess day falls on an employee's regularly scheduled day off, the employee will be granted an equivalent day off at a time mutually agreeable to the supervisor and the employee. Each recess day will be counted as 20% of the employee's work week. Likewise, staff members who are required to work a recess day will be allowed an equivalent day off with pay. In these cases, alternate time off must be taken prior to the end of the fiscal year or be forfeited. If time off cannot be scheduled before the end of the fiscal year because of operational needs, equivalent compensation will be made in the form of pay.
Recess days not taken are not to be counted in computing terminal vacation pay.
Effective 7/1/2010, M&P staff hired on or after July 1, 2010 have several options regarding Recess Days:
- If there is a business need, the staff member can work during the Holiday Recess and no PTO is used.
- If the department is closed and/or if the new hire elects not to work during recess, PTO is then used. While a number of departments are closed, many departments opt to have limited staffing or remain open.
- If an M&P does not have enough PTO accrued to cover the recess days but still wishes to take the time off, their PTO bank will go into “arrears” (negative balance for up to 5 days) until it is brought back to a positive balance with subsequent monthly credits. In some situations, the monthly paycheck could be reduced to account for these days.
Xref: OPM 415
