Subject: Emergency Closure Pay Instructions

On February 4, 2014, the University was closed by the President at 2:30 PM.  The University remained closed through February 5, 2014.  We have prepared this memo to answer some basic questions regarding time reporting for those two days, based upon information contained in IGP #158 Institutional Emergencies and IGP #23 Weather-Related Absences.

According to IGP #158, appropriate Vice Presidents shall determine what services are essential for operation of the University during the emergency.  For the two days, those services have been defined as Steam Plant, Snow Removal, Housing, Dining, UPD, Library Services, MLK Jr. Union and Student Recreation.  Positions providing support for the essential services will be included in the essential service for the purpose of the closure.

Status biweekly employees who were required to work on essential duties shall be paid for their work and receive equivalent time off for hours worked during their regular shift during the official closure period.  One hour for each hour of regularly scheduled work time will be added to your comp time.  If the work schedule required overtime, overtime will be paid for time worked.

If an employee did not report to work to perform essential services, the employee will be paid for the hours lost due to the closure up to the number of hours regularly scheduled during the time of the closure.

If an employee worked, providing non-essential services during the closure, the employee will be paid for the time worked.  If an employee didn’t work all regularly scheduled hours, the employee will add time to bring the total hours up to the regularly scheduled hours.  No equivalent time off will be granted.  Nonessential example:  if your regularly scheduled work period totals 7.5 and you worked 4 regular hours on February 5^th, you would add to that 3.5 Emergency Closure Non-Work hours, to bring the total up to your regularly scheduled hours of 7.5 hours.  If your regularly scheduled hours are something other than 7.5, you will be paid for your regularly scheduled work hours during the closure. 

For the purposes of applying for emergency closure pay, the University remained closed until an employee completed their shift that started prior to 11:59 PM on February 5, 2014.

If an employee was on vacation, sick leave, leave without pay, layoff, day off, or other paid time off, an employee should account for their time as if there was no closing.  This means that if an employee was on vacation, they do not receive emergency closure pay.

In order to accommodate the closure, two new time codes have been established.  Code 761, Emergency Closure – Worked will be used by Bi-weekly employees to record hours worked on essential services.  Code 762, Emergency Closure – Non-Work will be used by Bi-weekly and Monthly employees to record hours not worked due to the closure.  All other codes, such as overtime and shift differential will remain the same.  Supervisors should ensure the proper use of these codes.

Employees that left before the University officially closed at 2:30 PM on February 4th should use accrued leave or leave without pay up until 2:30 and then they will receive closure hours using the Emergency Closure – Non-Work code.

Students and Extra Help employees will be paid if they had regularly scheduled hours that were interrupted by the closure.  The Emergency Closure – Non-Work code should be used to claim the payment.

Question regarding application of these Emergency Closure Pay instructions can be directed to your immediate supervisor, who can communicate with Benefits (217) 581-5825 or Payroll (217) 581-2214.