SCOPE: FACULTY AND STAFF
Issued: 4/1/00
Revised: 1/01/07; 1/15/2010; 6/14/2022
1. Bereavement Leave or Emergency Leave: A faculty or staff member may be granted emergency leave without the loss of regular pay for reason of death in the family. Under the State Governmental Code for emergency leave purposes, "family is defined as the employee's spouse or the employee or spouse's parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, children and grandchildren".1
1.1 The amount of time granted shall normally not exceed three (3) days. Requests for leave in excess of three days may be approved, based on the facts and circumstances of each case (see 1.4, below). A full three (3) days is not automatically granted since it is intended that such leave be limited to the reasonable amount of time necessary for travel, funeral arrangements, funeral services, and being with other family members during the immediate period of bereavement.
1.2 Requests for such leave must be submitted to and approved by the employee's department head or direct supervisor (or to the department official who has the authority to approve leave for that employee) and forwarded to the Assistant Vice President for Human Resources.
1.3 Requests for emergency leave for reason of death of a family member not mentioned above must be approved by the Assistant Vice President for Human Resources.
1.4 Requests for emergency bereavement leave greater than three (3) days will require an exception reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the Assistant Vice President of Human Resources. If approved, this leave shall not exceed five (5) days.
2. Administrative Leave or Emergency Leave: The President may consider other requests for administrative or emergency leave that do not meet the criteria above. Such leave will be designated as administrative leave. The President may grant administrative leave when, in his determination, the employee shows good cause for such leave.2 Administrative leave is normally limited to cases involving unusual or emergency situations, e.g., a death in the family, employment disability, or other emergencies or administrative requirements.
The maximum administrative leave time granted in conjunction with a Long Term Disability Claim will not exceed ninety (90) calendar days.
3. General:
3.1 Leave approved as emergency or administrative leave is not charged against vacation or sick leave balances.
3.2 Administrative leave will not be granted if the faculty or staff member is entitled to other appropriate leave with pay related to the circumstances, e.g., sick leave, military leave, compensatory time, sick pool time, etc.
3.3 Vacation and sick leave credits continue to accrue during paid emergency and administrative leave.
3.4 Emergency or administrative leave should be requested in advance if possible, or as soon as the faculty or staff member knows he/she will be absent. The Request for Leave Form (F3.6A) must be submitted to the department official who has authority to approve leave. This authority must endorse the request and be forwarded to the President. Administrative leave requests must be approved by the President.
3.5 Emergency/administrative leave utilized should be recorded on the F3.6A and the F3.6 form.
4. Leave for Assistance Dog Training: A State employee who is blind is entitled to a leave of absence with full pay for the purpose of attending a training program to acquaint the employee with a seeing-eye dog to be used by the employee. The leave of absence provided by this subsection may not exceed ten (10) working days in a fiscal year. The leave of absence provided by this subsection is in addition to other leave to which an employee is entitled, and an employee continues to accrue vacation and sick leave while on leave as provided by this subsection. For purposes of this subsection, "blind" has the meaning assigned by Section 121.002, Human Resources Code.3
5. Volunteer Fire Fighter and Emergency Medical Services Training Leave: Volunteer firefighters and emergency medical services volunteers will be granted a paid leave of absence not to exceed five working days each fiscal year for attending training schools conducted by state agencies. This leave is not charged against the employee’s accrued leave balance. Employees requesting such leave should provide their supervisor with support documentation verifying the training.
Volunteer firefighters or emergency medical services volunteers responding to emergency fire or medical situations may be granted paid leave not to exceed five (5) days. Each situation will be reviewed by the supervisor and recommended to the appropriate Vice President for approval.4
6. Foster Parent Leave: A regular employee who is a foster parent to a child under the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), is entitled to a leave of absence with full pay for the purpose of attending staffing meetings held by the Department of Family and Protective Services regarding the child under the foster care of the employee, or to attend the admission, review and dismissal meetings held by a school district regarding the child under the foster care of the employee.5
7. Disaster Service Volunteer/Certified Red Cross Activities Leave: Any State employee, who is a certified disaster service volunteer of the American Red Cross or who is in training to become such a volunteer, with the authorization of his/her supervisor, may be granted a leave not to exceed ten (10) days each fiscal year to participate in specialized disaster relief services. The employee must have supervisory authorization in addition to a request from the American Red Cross and approval of Governor's office. If the above conditions are met, the employee will not lose pay, vacation time, sick leave, earned overtime and/or compensatory time during such leave.6
8. Jury Duty
8.1 Any staff member who is called to serve on a jury shall be granted the time off with no deduction from pay or accrued leave. Any compensation for jury service need not be accounted to the state by the employee.6
8.1.1 The employee is excused from his/her work assignment for that period of time which is required to perform this duty. Should an employee be released from duty for that day and a reasonable amount of the work day be left, the employee is expected to return to the duty station.
8.1.2 The employee shall supply the supervisor with a copy of the call to jury duty and a copy of the release for all duty certificates. The certification should be maintained to support the filing of jury duty leave time.
8.2 An employee called to appear in an official capacity in any judicial action or legislative investigation is not entitled to any witness fees. If the appearance is not in an official capacity but is for the purpose of testifying from personal knowledge, an employee may accept any customary witness fees. In this latter case, the appearance must be made on the employee’s own time.7
9. Parent/Teacher Conference Leave: An employee may use up to eight hours of sick leave each fiscal year to attend parent-teacher conference sessions for the employee’s children who are in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Employees must give reasonable notice of intention to use sick leave to attend such conferences.8 Part-time employees receive this leave on a proportionate basis.
10. Leave for Organ or Bone Marrow Donors: The employee is entitled to a leave of absence without a deduction in salary for the time necessary to permit the employee to serve as a bone marrow or organ donor. The leave of absence provided by this section may not exceed:
11. Donation of Blood: The institution shall allow each employee sufficient time off, without a deduction in salary or accrued leave, to donate blood. An employee may not receive time off under this section unless the employee obtains approval from his or her supervisor before taking time off. Upon returning to work after taking time off under this section, an employee shall provide his or her supervisor with proof that the employee donated blood during the time off. If an employee fails to provide proof that the employee donated blood during the time off, the state agency shall deduct the period for which the employee was granted time off from the employee’s salary or accrued leave, whichever the employee chooses. An employee may receive time off under this section not more than four times in a fiscal year.10
12. Time Off To Vote: The University shall allow each employee sufficient time off, without a deduction in salary or accrued leave, to vote in each national, state, or local election. An employee may not receive time off under this section unless the employee obtains approval from his or her supervisor before taking time off.11
13. Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Volunteers: Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) are volunteers selected by the state’s judicial system to, among other duties, provide detailed information a court may need to ensure a child’s best interest is served where residency or other matters are concerned. Employees who are CASA volunteers are eligible for paid leave not to exceed five (5) hours each month to participate in mandatory training or to perform volunteer services for CASA.12 This leave is provided to an employee without a deduction in salary or loss of vacation time, sick leave, earned overtime, or state compensatory leave. An employee may be required to provide documentation of his/her CASA volunteer status to his/her supervisor before the leave is approved.
14. Inclement Weather Closing: The University has the discretionary authority to determine how to post time when the University closes because of inclement weather.
14.1 If an employee is on sick or vacation leave and the University closes due to inclement weather, the employee should receive administrative leave for the absence.
14.2 An employee who has already completed his or her scheduled hours when the University closes would not receive any compensatory time or administrative time off because the agency was not closed while the employee was scheduled to work.
14.3 An employee who has not completed his or her scheduled hours when the University closes should receive administrative leave time because the University was closed while the employee was scheduled to work.
14.4 When an employee is temporarily working in the same metropolitan area (for example, presenting or attending training) and the University closes, the employee should receive compensatory time for working.
14.5 When an employee is temporarily working in another metropolitan area (for example, presenting or attending training) and the University closes, the employee should not receive compensatory time for working.
1 Texas Govt. Code §661.902
2 Ibid
3 Texas Govt. Code §661.910
4 Texas Govt. Code §661.905
5 Texas Govt. Code §661.906
6 Texas Govt. Code §659.005
7 Ibid
8 Texas Govt. Code §661.913
9 Texas Govt. Code §661.916
10 Texas Govt. Code §661.917
11 Texas Govt. Code §661.914
12 Texas Govt. Code §661-921