Employees are provided administrative leave for official emergency closing of University of Florida facilities typically due to natural disasters, i.e., hurricanes or tropical storms. Essential service providers are exempt from this leave. Special compensatory leave is given to USPS and non-exempt essential service providers and those who perform duties during the emergency closing.
Administrative leave for official emergency closing is approved by the Vice President for Human Resource Services, except for IFAS facilities outside of Alachua County, where approval is given by the center directors. UF Benefits or the appropriate personnel satellite office should be contacted prior to approving the leave. The names of the employees granted leave and the number of hours should be provided to UF Benefits.
Employees already on approved paid leave are not eligible for administrative leave. USPS and non-exempt essential service providers will receive special compensatory leave beyond their regular hours.
Relocation of affected employees is the first course of action to be taken. If, however, a Governor’s executive order is in place (to close a county, for example) or relocation is not an option, the following applies.
With a Governor’s Executive Order
If a Governor’s executive order is in place, no approval beyond the order is necessary. Employees will be granted administrative leave. However, this process still should be coordinated through UF Benefits.
Please note that the language of the Governor’s orders varies—sometimes the executive orders provide administrative leave based on where an employee works; other times, the orders provide leave based on where an employee lives. Given that it is not always possible to get specific information in a timely manner, in appropriate situations and in the absence of good information, employees should be authorized vacation leave pending further information about whether that vacation leave may be changed to administrative leave. In the event, the vacation leave cannot be changed to administrative leave (the Governor’s order specifies work site and the employee used leave based on where he or she lives, for example), the employee would have used his or her vacation leave appropriately.
Without a Governor’s Executive Order
In the absence of a Governor’s executive order, administrative leave for the official emergency closing of university facilities is approved by the Vice President for Human Resource Services—except for IFAS facilities outside of Alachua County. For these IFAS facilities, approval has been delegated to the center directors (unless a Governor’s executive order is in place for the county, in which case it takes precedence as described above).
In all cases, UF Benefits or the appropriate personnel satellite office should be contacted prior to approving the leave.
Essential employees who work during an official campus closing (non-exempt, excluding OPS, and USPS Exempt Employees) should record the hours worked during the closure and the full day of administrative leave. This ensures accrual of special compensatory leave in addition to regular pay. If unused, compensatory leave is paid at the end of the fiscal year. Read more about Essential Personnel on the UF Policy Hub site.
Exempt TEAMS Employees and Faculty are not required to report time through the Weekly Elapsed Screen. However, if they have entered the “900-Administrative Leave-EMC” code, it doesn’t need to be removed.
TEAMS exempt employees required to work during emergency closures may be eligible for compensatory leave at the department’s discretion. Compensatory leave is not accrued through the myUFL system. Faculty and graduate assistants are not eligible for compensatory leave under this policy. For more information, visit the Essential Personnel policy.
If you’re a non-exempt (excluding OPS) or USPS Exempt Employee, report your normal scheduled hours (hours you were actually scheduled to work) during the closure using the “900-Administrative Leave-EMC” time code on the Elapsed Timesheet.