Dear University Employees,
The UNC System Office has provided us with updated guidance about work and leave provisions for faculty and staff effective May 9, 2020. This guidance will remain in effect until further notice.
The guidance offers updates in three areas:
- Administrative Leave and Telework
- All employees who are able to telework should continue to do so.
- Faculty and staff (permanent or temporary), students and postdocs may receive paid administrative leave if they cannot work for reasons such as their duties cannot be performed remotely, they have childcare needs (and are no longer eligible for FFCRA leave benefits) or have eldercare needs due to COVID-19 related facility closings.
- Units have the discretion to provide full or partial paid administrative leave to non-student temporary employees, or to end the temporary appointment as deemed appropriate.
- Other provisions related to paid administrative leave are being updated in the FAQ available at hr.unc.edu/covid19-faq.
- Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)
- Employees were provided information last week about the FFCRA benefits, which make additional family leave and paid sick time available for eligible employees.
- The guidance provided requires that eligible employees use FFCRA leave before administrative leave can be used.
- Additional provisions related to FFCRA may be found at unc.edu/benefits/ffcra.
- Communicable Disease Mandatory Employee (CDME) Compensation for on-site work
- In the guidance provided on May 1, the UNC System Office provided institutions discretion to end or alter special compensation for CDME work performed at a University worksite. This discretion was granted based on the progress being made toward the Governor’s plans to re-open the state, and the growing fiscal impacts institutions are facing.
- At UNC-Chapel Hill, onsite CDMEs will continue to earn the 1.5 compensation time for any hours worked (up to 40 hours in a single work week) onsite until May 10, which marks the end of the current bi-weekly pay period.
- Beginning May 11, the supplementary compensation provision will end, and all employees will be paid standard base pay for any time worked, either onsite or remotely. Regular overtime provisions continue to apply.
- Employees who earned compensatory time for onsite work over the previous months will be paid out for any remaining time earned in the coming months. More information about plans for payouts will be provided in subsequent updates.
No additional information has been provided yet on full-scale return to work plans, but the University continues to work on its scenario planning with hopes of reopening for students in the fall. More information will be provided by Chancellor Guskiewicz later this month. In the meantime, please visit hr.unc.edu/covid19-faq regularly for more information about these work policies and plans moving forward. We’re currently making updates to this page to reflect the new guidance.
Sincerely,
Becci Menghini
Vice Chancellor
Human Resources and Equal Opportunity and Compliance