As we near the end of the year, please review the important information below about 2016 leave, floating holidays, winter break and the leave audit. This information and the Significant Date Calendar will help you manage your leave and safeguard you from forfeiting leave.
2016 Leave
- Personal leave and accrued holiday leave must be used by pay period ending 1/3/17 or the leave will be forfeited.
- The maximum amount of annual leave that can be carried into 2017 is 50 days (or 400 hours). This includes any annual leave earned and/or used in the pay period ending 1/3/17.
- The maximum amount of annual leave part-time employees may carry over to the next calendar year is pro-rated based on the percentage of time employed.
2016 Floating Holidays
- The floating holidays you earned or will earn this year include President’s Day (February 15), Columbus Day (October 10), Election Day (November 8), and Veterans Day (November 11). You must be employed on the date of the holiday, and in an active pay status, to earn the floating holiday.
- Floating holidays are intended to cover part of the winter break (see below). If you do not save your floating holidays to cover winter break, you must use accrued personal or annual leave to cover those days.
- Since this year is a general election year, most employees will earn four floating holidays. Three floating holidays are needed to cover the winter break, so some employees may have an additional floating holiday to use by pay period ending 1/3/17.
Winter Break
The dates of the 2016 winter break and corresponding holiday type are listed below:
Friday, December 23 University holiday
Monday, December 26 State holiday – Christmas Day
Tuesday, December 27 University holiday
Wednesday, December 28 Floating holiday*
Thursday, December 29 Floating holiday*
Friday, December 30 Floating holiday*
Monday, January 2 State holiday – New Year’s Day (2017) – earned the last pay of 2016
*Employees without accrued floating holidays to cover these days above must use personal or annual leave. Sick leave may not be used unless an employee is already on approved medical leave.
Employees in 24/7 operations should discuss their holiday leave schedule with their supervisors. Holiday leave earned in 2016 may not be carried beyond 1/3/17.
Audit
For compliance purposes, leave records will be audited early next year. Anyone who over-used their 2016 leave will need to make up for that overuse through deductions in their 2017 leave. These adjustments are necessary to avoid audit findings.
Helpful Reminders
- Check your leave statement to ensure you have leave available before you record the leave on your time sheet.
- Use the appropriate leave code when completing your time sheet. If you are unsure, click on the Lookup Leave Codes button in your time sheet.
- Check your time sheet to be sure any default time sheets are changed to reflect leave used.
- Use accrued personal and holiday leave first since this leave does not carry over to 2017.
- Manage your annual leave so you do not exceed the maximum 50-day carry over to next year.
- Employees – Review your time sheet carefully before approving.
- Supervisors – Review your employees’ time sheets for accuracy before approving and submitting to payroll. You are able to check the employees’ leave statements by scrolling to the end of the time sheet and clicking on Current Leave Balance.
Please follow these guidelines. If you have questions about your leave, please email leavebenefits@towson.edu.
