As we near the end of the year, please review the important information below about 2018 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.
2018 Leave
- Personal leave and accrued holiday leave must be used by pay period ending 1/1/19 or the leave will be forfeited.
- The maximum amount of annual leave that can be carried into 2019 is 50 days (or 400 hours). This includes any annual leave earned and/or used in the pay period ending 1/1/19.
- The maximum amount of annual leave part-time employees may carry over to 2019 is pro-rated based on the percentage of time employed.
2018 Floating Holidays
- The floating holidays you earned or will earn this year include President’s Day (February 19), Columbus Day (October 8), Election Day (November 6) and Veterans Day (November 12). 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. 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 1/1/19.
Winter Break
The dates of the 2018 winter break and corresponding holiday type are below:
Monday, December 24 University holiday
Tuesday, December 25 State holiday – Christmas Day
Wednesday, December 26 University holiday
Thursday, December 27 Floating holiday*
Friday, December 28 Floating holiday*
Monday, December 31 Floating holiday*
Tuesday, January 1 State holiday – New Year’s Day
*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 2018 cannot be carried beyond 1/1/19.
Audit
For compliance purposes, leave records will be audited early 2019. Anyone who over-used their 2018 leave will need to make up for that overuse through deductions in their 2019 leave. These adjustments are necessary to avoid audit findings.
Helpful Reminders
- Check your leave statement to ensure you have leave available before you record 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 the extra holiday leave first since this leave does not carry beyond 1/1/19.
- 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, email leavebenefits@towson.edu.
