University employees who are benefits eligible can use their accrued Sick Leave to take time off during periods of personal illness, to obtain medical services or to care for immediate family members who are ill. Vacation/Annual Leave is paid time off earned by benefits-eligible appointed personnel, classified staff, and University staff. Remember: use it or lose it because employees may carry forward one and one-half times the maximum number of vacation hours earned in a given year. An employee who is at least 0.50 FTE or who work 20 or more hours in a week is eligible to earn vacation and sick leave. There is no waiting period to use your sick or vacation leave.
Notify your supervisor immediately if you are taking a sick day and plan ahead for doctor's appointments. Vacation or annual leave needs to be planned in advance with approval from supervisor. Be sure to have requests and approvals in writing. Leave forms for faculty and staff are available in Box.
Compensatory hours can be earned by employees who are Salary Non-exempt (SNE). Employees who are salary non-exempt report actual hours worked on their timesheets. If an employee works over their FTE in a week then the additional hours are accrued in their comp bank. Departmental policy allows employees to accrue comp hours up to their FTE. Example: If an employee is 0.50 FTE or 20 hours per week then that employee can accrue a maximum of 20 hours comp time. This policy does not affect Salary Exempt (SE) employees because SE employees are expected to work until their jobs are done.
Administrative Absence
Other Leaves
- Family and Medical Leave
- The University provides up to 26 work weeks of unpaid, job-protected FMLA leave during a “single 12-month period” to eligible employees for the certain qualifying basic leave and military family leave reasons.
- Approved Extended Leave - Appointed Personnel
- Approved Personal Leave - Classified Staff
- Military Leave
- Extended Active Military Leave
- Sabbatical - Appointed Personnel
- Prestigious Awards Leave - Appointed Personnel
- Compassionate Transfer of Leave (CTL)
- CTL allows employees to contribute vacation hours to another employee who has exhausted all sick and vacation due to a catastrophic illness or to care for an immediate family member.
- Paid Parental Leave
- The University of Arizona offers up to 6 weeks of paid parental leave following the birth or adoption of a child for employees who are full benefits-eligible.
- University Winter Closure
- Most University of Arizona departments close or reduce operations between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Three paid holidays fall within this period: Christmas Eve (floating holiday), Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. Three or four days, depending on the calendar, are mandatory paid Closure leave.
- Employees have used a variety of Vacation, University Closure, and Comp Time to be paid during the closure days. Starting in 2016, all benefits-eligible employees will use University Closure to be paid during the closure days. Holidays are pre-populated on timesheets. Closure days will be reported either as UCP or UCE.
Time-off Pay Programs