Unit Policy
Title
Department of Ophthalmology: Policy on Personnel
Introduction
Purpose
The Department of Ophthalmology follows the personnel policies of the University of North Carolina, which can be found in their entirety on the UNC-CH Human Resources website. Additional information about the department's specific requirements or expectations on selected personnel policies is contained below.
Scope
All SHRA employees in the Department of Ophthalmology, including probationary, trainee, temporary, student assistant or employees in time-limited appointments.
Policy
Policy Statement
This document provides a summary and clarification of the specific policies of the Department of Ophthalmology for all SHRA employees related to hours and location of work, recording and submittal of hours worked, management of leave and other time off, and general guidelines and requirements for SHRA personnel assigned to the unit. All SHRA employees will review the policy and complete and sign the acknowledgement form included in this policy.
- Unexcused Absences and Tardiness
If, for any reason, an employee will be late or is unable to report to regularly scheduled work, they are required to contact the supervisor and/or the assigned backup via phone before or as soon as possible after the normal start time. For an unplanned need to leave work early, approval with as much advanced notice as possible must be obtained from the supervisor. With supervisory approval, the work time lost from a tardy arrival or early departure may be made up within the same week. If time cannot be made up within the same work, the work time missed must be coded with accrued comp time, vacation, or sick leave as appropriate.
- Advanced Leave
The Department of Ophthalmology does not advance leave (sick or vacation time) to employees.
- Advance Authorization for Overtime or Compensatory Time
Should an employee need to work additional hours to complete a special project or meet a deadline, an email must be sent by the requestor with a description of the project's status and the request for approval of overtime or compensatory time, as applicable. The supervisor will respond via email with approval or rejection of the request based on the Department’s needs. If the request is approved, additional work can be performed. If the request is rejected, the workload must be adjusted to avoid overtime or compensatory time. Supervisors and managers should refer to University HR policies on overtime and compensatory time eligibility prior to approving any overtime or compensatory time for an employee to ensure compliance with state laws and University requirements.
- Flexible Scheduling
With the supervisor's written permission via email, an employee may be authorized to adjust their work schedule for a specific pay period. For example, an employee may wish to leave two hours early on a Wednesday and a supervisor may agree to accommodate the request and lengthen the work schedule for other days within that same week so that the employee will not need to use leave, compensatory time or sick time for the requested hours off.
For Life Events that may require changes to work schedules that are foreseen to be recurring daily/weekly/biweekly, employees will be referred to the HR Benefits Department or website to request Family Medical Leave. The Benefits HR contact is Brandy Flickinger at 919-843-8352 or brandy_flickinger@unc.edu. For more information on FMLA, please refer to the website. In addition, an employee may be eligible for an ADA accommodation. For more information, please refer to the UNC Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office for appropriate guidance.
- Special Scheduling Circumstances
Managers/supervisors may, from time to time, at their discretion, allow for the early closing of the office or otherwise designate a more individualized recognition of their employees. If this is done, only those employee(s) scheduled to work and present in the office on that day will be impacted by the manager’s or supervisor’s action. This does not supersede any already approved time scheduled off. For example, time already approved and coded as vacation will not be reduced by a decision to close the office early on that same day.
- Holidays
The Department of Ophthalmology is closed on University Holidays, and no employees are authorized to work on Holidays. Should an emergency arise where certain employees must come to work, the work time must be approved by the supervisor and kept to a minimum to address the emergency. Efforts must be made to ensure that exempt employees, rather than non-exempt employees, come into the office to address an emergency.
- TIM System
SHRA non-exempt employees, full or part-time, are scheduled to work a certain number of hours each workday. Each employee is responsible for arriving, departing and remaining at work in accordance with their approved work schedule. Arrival, meal break, and departure must be recorded accurately each day in TIM, the official timekeeping system of the University. Employees are not authorized to wait until the end of a day, week, or pay period to enter in time. Maintaining logs of work hours, time off, compensatory time, overtime, or other time outside of the TIM system is not authorized.
- Schedules for Special Events
On special occasion or as part of their regular job duties, employees may work on events that are scheduled for hours outside of normal working hours. The supervisor and employee should discuss how this will be handled in advance of the event. The preferred option is to alter the work schedule within that work week to accommodate the required schedule to avoid incurring overtime or compensatory time. For example, an employee might work three hours in the evening on a Tuesday and depart three hours earlier on Wednesday. If altering the work schedule is not possible for that week, the supervisor must authorize overtime or compensatory time, as applicable, in advance of the event in writing.
- Use of Compensatory Time
In accordance with University policy, compensatory time must be used before other types of paid leave, such as vacation or sick time. The priority order of use of coded leave, can be found here.
- Use of Vacation Time
Vacation time requests must be submitted via email to the supervisor at least a week in advance of the requested time off. If the request is submitted with less than a week's notice, it may not be approved. The supervisor must approve or disapprove the request via email. The supervisor will balance the vacation requests with the workload of their area of responsibility to ensure the office is sufficiently staffed and ensure the employee has the accrued leave time to cover the request. No leave request will be approved if the employee does not have the amount of leave time accrued at the time of the request. Once the leave request has been approved, the employee will need to submit a new request if the approved dates need to be changed or altered.
- Policy for Awarding Vacation Time around UNC Holidays
Vacations requested on or around UNC Holidays are reviewed prior to approval to ensure appropriate office coverage can be maintained.
- Meal Periods and Breaks
Break periods are not mandatory, nor are they an entitlement per University policy. Employees must check with their supervisors to determine if a break may be authorized. Break periods, if approved, are not to exceed 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon. Departmental policy mandates that employees take a meal period. The duration and schedule of meal periods are at the discretion of the supervisor. Employees are encouraged but not required to leave the work area for their meal break.
- Work Location
Employees are to work on-campus and are not authorized to work remotely (from home, for example) unless approved by their supervisor in advance. Work done remotely, when approved, may be verified by use of computer logs on the employees' workstation or any other way deemed to provide adequate documentation of the time spent working as a backup for time logged in TIM. Employees are discouraged from using their personal cellular devices for work-related purposes before/after working hours. If deemed essential to business needs and approved, time doing this must be captured in TIM to the nearest fraction of an hour. Records/documentation demonstrating the time spent on a personal cellular device attending to business needs must be submitted, upon request.
Questions
Employees with questions about a particular policy or situation, should email or contact their supervisor for clarification.
Exceptions
Temporary employees do not accrue any University-provided paid time off or Holiday pay and their time may not be adjusted to provide them with any paid time off or Holiday pay as this is against University policy and wage laws. Temporary employees will coordinate with their University and agency supervisors and managers to ensure adherence to applicable requirements under this policy and state and federal laws.
Definitions
SHRA Employees - All employees governed by the State Human Resources Act of North Carolina
SHRA Exempt Employees - SHRA exempt employees are not exempt from the State Human Resources, but they are exempt from the overtime compensation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Compensatory time off may be provided at departmental discretion. SHRA Exempt employees are not required to complete University timesheets (although departments may designate alternative forms of tracking work hours.
SHRA Non-Exempt Employees - SHRA non-exempt employees are not exempt from the State Human Resources Act, and they are not exempt from the overtime compensation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. These employees must be compensated at a rate of time and one-half for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours during a single work week. This compensation may be overtime pay or compensatory time off. SHRA Non-Exempt employees are required to complete biweekly University timesheets.
Contact Information
Primary Contact
Name: Juan Trujillo – Associate Chair for Administration
Email: Juan_Trujillo@med.unc.edu