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Human Resources

4.01 Holidays

The university recognizes specific holidays during the year and provides paid time off for employees at these designated times.

Origination date: 10/1/1993
Revised: 1/1/2000, 7/1/2017
Applicability: Academic Professionals, Administrators, Classified Staff, Faculty,Service Professionals, Postdoctoral Scholars

Holidays

Official University holidays have been designated by the President as follows:

  • New Year’s Day
  • Martin Luther King Day
  • Memorial Day
  • Juneteenth
  • Independence Day
  • Labor Day
  • Veteran’s Day
  • Thanksgiving Day
  • Christmas Day
  • President’s Designated Holiday

Eligibility

All regular employees are eligible for paid holiday leave. Temporary employees and student employees are not eligible for paid holiday leave.

An employee must work or be on an authorized paid status on the last workday before and the first workday after the holiday to qualify for holiday pay. Unauthorized absences prior to or following holidays may subject the employee to disciplinary action. Holidays falling on Saturday or Sunday will be observed as designated by the president of the university. For an eligible employee whose normal day off falls on a holiday, the holiday will be observed on either the preceding or following workday or as directed by the department head.

An eligible employee who cannot be excused from his/her duties on a holiday will be granted commensurate time off, with pay, during the same or a subsequent workweek for each holiday worked.

An eligible employee who is scheduled to work less than full-time, will receive time off for the holiday on a prorated basis. This will be based on his/her average hours worked each week, regardless of his/her regularly scheduled hours for that day. For example: If an employee works averages of 30 hours per week then he/she will receive 6 hours of holiday pay. This may require rearranging the work schedule for the week in which the holiday falls so the total hours worked for the week are equal to the employee’s average.

Payment

An eligible employee who observes the holiday will be paid at his/her current straight-time rate of pay for the hours not worked within his/her regular work schedule.

An eligible employee who is required to work on a holiday shall be paid at the current straight-time rate of pay for all hours worked. In addition, an employee working on a holiday will be granted commensurate time off during the same or a subsequent workweek for each holiday worked.

An eligible employee, who is scheduled to work less than full-time will receive holiday pay prorated on the basis of his/her average hours worked each week. The employee should receive holiday pay or compensatory time off for the holiday, regardless of whether their regular scheduled workdays fall on the holiday.

Holidays falling within a vacation or sick leave period will be treated as holidays; therefore, they will not be charged to vacation or sick leave.

An employee who is on an unpaid leave of absence is not entitled to receive pay or credit for holidays that fall within that leave.

Upon termination, an employee will be paid any holiday pay that he/she had not received and for which he/she was eligible. An employee’s last day of employment cannot fall on a holiday.

Accommodation of Religious Observances/Practices

No employee shall discriminate against any employee or other individual because of such individual’s religious belief or practice or any absence thereof. Furthermore, a department head is responsible to reasonably accommodate individual religious practices. A refusal to accommodate is justified only when undue hardship to the university would result from each available alternative of reasonable accommodation.