STATE BOARD FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES AND OCCUPATIONAL EDUCATION

Furloughs for Exempt Employees


BP 3-62

APPROVED: June 11, 2003
EFFECTIVE: June 11, 2003

ISSUED BY:
/ Joe D. May /
Joe D. May
System President

The following rules govern the implementation of unpaid mandatory and voluntary furloughs for exempt employees of the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education. The decision to require mandatory furloughs of exempt employees may be made separately by the individual colleges and the System office. Individual colleges and the System office also may differentiate the manner of implementing furloughs with respect to different classes of exempt employees.

Mandatory Furloughs

Exempt Administrators, Contract Professional Staff, and Technical and Professional Educational Staff may be subject to mandatory furloughs under the following conditions.

  1. Mandatory furloughs apply to all such employees regardless of the funding source(s) for their respective operations.
  2. Scheduling of time off for mandatory furloughs is subject to supervisor approval.
  3. Supervisors are encouraged to approve an employee’s requested scheduling of time off for mandatory furlough, unless doing so would create an unreasonable disruption to the operation of the unit.
  4. Vacation or sick leave may not be substituted for mandatory furloughs.
  5. With respect to mandatory furloughs, all similarly situated Exempt Administrators, Contract Professional Staff, and Technical and Professional Education Staff shall be furloughed for the same length of time.

Faculty members may be subject to mandatory furloughs under the following conditions.

  1. Mandatory furloughs apply to all faculty members regardless of the funding source(s) for their respective positions.
  2. Furloughs for faculty members are not to be taken during scheduled class times for that faculty member, but should be taken at non-class meeting times during the minimum 40-hour faculty workweek.
  3. Supervisors are encouraged to approve a faculty member’s requested scheduling of time off for mandatory furlough other than at class meeting times, unless doing so would create an unreasonable disruption to the operation of the unit.
  4. Leave time may not be substituted for mandatory furloughs.
  5. With respect to mandatory furloughs, all similarly situated faculty members shall be furloughed for the same length of time.

Voluntary Furloughs

    1. Exempt employees may take voluntary furloughs, not to exceed 72 days per fiscal year, subject to approval of their supervisors upon a mutually agreed schedule. Exempt employees who take voluntary furloughs will accrue eight hours of sick leave for each day of the first five days of voluntary furlough approved and taken, up to a maximum of 40 hours of sick leave thus accrued.

This sick leave will be in addition to the monthly sick leave accrual under BP 3-60. It also will add to the maximum hours of sick leave used for calculating payouts on retirement. Thus an exempt employee hired or reinstated after July 1, 1989, who takes five days of voluntary furlough, could accrue up to a maximum of 280 hours of sick leave as the basis for payout on retirement from community college system employment.