Value Statement
The Austin Community College District (“ACC” or “the College”) provides accrued paid leave for employees to attend to illnesses, injuries, family needs, and other personal reasons.
Administrative Rule
Vacation Leave:
- Administrators, professional-technical employees, and classified employees accrue vacation leave, unless their position is designated to be for less than 12 months.
- Full-time administrators, professional-technical employees, and classified employees with less than five (5) years of continuous employment with the College accrue 10 hours of vacation leave per month (typically 15 days per year), except head librarians, who accrue vacation leave at the rate of 13.34 hours per month (typically 20 days per year) regardless of the number of years of employment with the College.
- Full-time administrators, professional-technical, and classified employees, upon the fifth anniversary of their employment with the college, accrue vacation leave at the rate of 13.34 hours per month (typically 20 days per year).
- Part-time administrators, professional-technical, and classified employees accrue vacation hours proportional to their hours of employment. Employees who transfer between part-time and full-time positions should refer to the administrative guidelines for additional information.
- A new benefits-eligible employee begins accruing vacation leave immediately (prorated by the number of days worked in their first pay period). However, they may not use vacation leave until they have completed ninety (90) days of employment. In addition, they may not be paid for vacation leave if their employment is terminated for any reason or if they move into a non-accruing position prior to completing ninety (90) days of employment.
- No other employees accrue vacation leave.
- The maximum number of hours of vacation leave an employee may accrue is 240 hours (30 working days).
- All vacation leave taken by an employee is subject to the advance approval of their immediate supervisor.
- In the event of separation of employment from the College, an eligible employee will receive payment for all accrued vacation leave, except for employees who have not completed ninety (90) days of eligible employment and grant employees.
- In the event of the death of an employee (except for grant employees, see below), per state law the payment will be made to the deceased employee’s estate or to the surviving spouse of the deceased employee. The appropriate legal documents must be submitted to the Office of Human Resources (HR) Benefits.
Sick Leave:
- Full-time administrators, faculty, professional-technical, and classified employees may accrue sick leave each month. Eligible full-time employees accrue 8 hours of sick leave each month. Accrual is based on employee FTE for staff and based on contract length and pay option for faculty.
- No other employees accrue sick leave.
- Employees may accrue a maximum of 1,200 hours of sick leave.
- Eligible employees moving into sick leave accruing positions begin accruing sick leave immediately (prorated by the number of days worked in their first pay period).
- Employees may use accrued sick leave for the following reasons:
- personal healthcare needs,
- healthcare needs of a spouse, child, parent, or sibling, regardless of where they live,
- healthcare needs of any other relatives, whether by kinship, adoption, or marriage who live with the employee,
- healthcare needs of a foster child placed in the home by the Texas Department of Child Protective and Regulatory Services,
- healthcare needs for a person for whom the employee is the legal guardian
- An employee using sick leave should inform their supervisor as soon as reasonably possible.
- In addition to the expected communication with their supervisor, for any episode of a healthcare-related absence of three (3) or more consecutive work days the employee must inform HR by email to [email protected]. To return to work after such absence, the employee must provide to their supervisor a note from their healthcare provider indicating that the employee is medically able to return to work. In the absence of such documentation, the employee must request an exemption from Human Resources.
- Up to 40 hours of accrued sick leave may be used for personal leave each year (August 16 – August 15). Personal leave may be used to attend to personal matters that are not healthcare related or covered by other specific leave categories.
- If an employee’s performance is inadequate due in part or whole to frequent absences, and the employee neither has an accommodation under the ADA nor is on FMLA, the employee may be subject to disciplinary action.
- Upon separation from the College, employees (except grant employees, see below) will receive payment for 50% for any unused sick leave in excess of 960 hours. The payment will be calculated at the employee’s current rate of pay. If the employee is deceased, per state law the payment will be made to the employee’s estate, or the surviving spouse of the deceased employee. The appropriate legal documents must be submitted to HR Benefits.
Special Leave Provisions for Grant Employees:
- Leave benefits for employees under a grant are designated in accordance with the terms and conditions of the grant.
- The employment letter for all employees hired under a grant shall state the terms and conditions of employment under the grant.
- Grant employees whose projects are ending must take all accrued vacation leave prior to the ending date of the grant. Grant employees are not eligible to receive a payout of accumulated vacation time or sick leave, even for sick leave hours in excess of 960 hours.
- Grant employees who transfer into a non-grant position that accrues vacation and/or sick leave will have their unused accrued vacation and sick leave hours transferred to the new position.
Grant employees who transfer into a non-grant position that accrues only sick leave hours will have both their unused accrued vacation hours and sick leave hours transferred to the sick leave balance in the new position.
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