Home

III-23.1 Holidays

(Amended 9/93; Regents amended 6/14/95, effective 1/1/95; amended 8/05; 7/1/17; 10/17)

Effective October 2017, this policy has been revised. For the most current version without redlining, return to III-23.1. 

  1. General. Staff members with permanent and continuous appointments, on a full- or part-time basis, are entitled to holiday pay in proportion to their fraction of service, unless otherwise provided in this policy. Staff members hired on a temporary, on call, provisional, project, or emergency basis, as well as students hired through the Office of Student Financial Aid and students hired in positions reserved specifically for student employees, are not entitled to holiday pay.
     
  2. Paid Holidays.
    (Board of Regents 7/28/77; amended 7/1/17; 10/17)
    1. Members of the University staff are eligible for 11 paid holidays a year — two personal holidays that accrue and are taken as vacation, New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, the Friday following Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and an additional day near Christmas designated in the official University calendar.
    2. Once personal holidays are added to the staff member's accrued vacation, they are taken in accordance with the policies governing vacation.
    3. For employees whose workweek is Monday through Friday, when New Year's Day, Independence Day, or Christmas Day falls on Saturday, the Friday preceding is declared the holiday. When any of the three holidays falls on Sunday, the Monday following is declared the holiday. For employees with other than a Monday–Friday workweek, the holiday is declared to be the day on which the holiday naturally falls.
    4. Holiday pay is granted to all permanent and continuous staff members provided they work their last regularly scheduled workday prior to, and also their first regularly scheduled workday following a holiday, unless failure to work on either or both days is excused because of: 1) scheduled vacation days, or 2) scheduled compensatory time off, or 3) personal illness or injury, or 4) other extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the staff members which cannot be corrected in time for them to meet their employment obligations.
    5. When a holiday falls during the period of a leave of absence without pay, the staff member is not entitled to equivalent time off nor pay for the holiday.
    6. If a University holiday falls on a staff member's regular day off, where the individual is covered by classified as non-exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act, they will be given another day off within the next pay period may either record the time as holiday compensatory time earned (not to exceed 8 hours for full-time employees; prorated for part-time) to be scheduled/used at a later date if at all possible, or be paid for the holiday if the compensatory time cannot be scheduled. Whenever possible and feasible, department heads and supervisors should decide whether a staff member will be paid for a holiday or given time off at a later date in accordance with the wishes of the staff member.
    7. If a University holiday falls on a merit staff member's regularly scheduled workday, the employee will receive holiday pay equal to their regularly scheduled workday, except that no full-time employee shall receive less than 8 hours' holiday benefit.
    8. (7) A merit system staff member required to work on a holiday will be compensated at the rate of time and one half for all hours actually worked between the hours of 12 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on the holiday.
  3. Reporting. Reports on personal holidays are a part of the Employees Sick Leave and Vacation Report or departmental form conveying the information.

(See also IAC [681]3.142(19A).)