Group advises against plan
A focus group told the Staff Assembly Tuesday that a paid time off plan would reduce overall benefits, but it recommended changes to the current policy, including eliminating personal leave.
By Amy Johnson
Staff Reporter

A paid time off focus group, formed a year ago, recommended against implementing a benefit plan that would lump together vacation and sick leave in its Staff Assembly report Tuesday.

According to the focus group, a typical paid time off plan would result in a significant reduction in leave days by about 48 percent for salaried staff and between 45 percent and 47 percent for hourly staff. After reviewing several examples of such programs throughout the nation, the focus group opted against recommending such a plan, but did propose changes to the current leave plan.

Nancy Petruso, assistant vice chancellor for advancement services, said about 80 percent of staff surveyed were satisfied with the current plan and they were against any reduction in the number of sick and vacation days allotted.

“The biggest reason we are not recommending the paid time off plan is because it would result in a loss of benefits for staff overall,” Petruso said.

Paid time off plans typically combine vacation and sick leave into one pay pool and may include other leave such as holiday and funeral as well, said Nancy Styles, executive assistant to the vice chancellor for marketing and communication. Currently, employees have separate vacation and sick leave, she said.

A paid time off plan would calculate the average number of sick days needed to be around five or six and would reduce the total number of days a year, Petruso said.

Under the current leave plan, salaried staff receives about 48 days of leave, Styles said. This number includes vacation and sick days, university closings and holidays, she said. Hourly staff with under 10 years of service receive about 41 leave days and those with more than 10 years receive about 49, she said.

Under the proposed plan, salaried staff members would have received between 21 and 26 leave days and hourly staff between 16 and 26 leave days, Styles said.

Recommended changes to the current plan by the focus group are to eliminate the six month waiting period for vacation time; create earlier and more frequent milestones for hourly staff based on years of service; equalize leave benefits for salaried and hourly staff at 15 years; reduce payout to 50 percent of unused leave time for staff completing less than five years of employment; and eliminate personal leave.

The proposed changes are being referred to the policy review committee for study, said Karen Baker, chairwoman of the Staff Assembly.

Baker said a focus group was appointed by Human Resources in May to study a paid time off plan because of interest expressed in a survey. One benefit of the plan is that it would allow staff more flexibility in how to use their days off, she said.

In most circumstances, salaried staff members receive no overtime and hourly employees are eligible for overtime, Petruso said.