Employee Leave

Classified staff leave rules are governed by the Colorado State Personnel Board rules.

Classified staff members in regular appointments accrue vacation leave in the following way:

If you take unpaid time off work, CU will reduce your leave accruals for the time frame in question. You cannot use leave until the beginning of the month following the one in which you earned it.

Vacation payouts

You cannot receive pay in exchange for vacation time while employed at CU. When you leave or retire from CU, you will receive a vacation payout of your earned, unused vacation time up to a maximum of 42 days.

Vacation leave should be used for personal needs; your supervisor or other appointing authority must approve your leave before you can take it.

Your supervisor may establish periods when annual leave will not be allowed or must be taken, based on business needs. These periods cannot place you in a situation where you must forfeit leave because you did not have a reasonable opportunity to use it. If your department cancels approved leave that results in forfeiture, it must pay you for the forfeited hours before the end of the fiscal year.

CU holidays and vacation days

If a CU recognized holiday lands within the span of your vacation, you will not be charged vacation time for that day.

Leave Without Pay

Employees must be at work or on paid leave to earn monthly leave with the exception of military leave or furloughs.

Eligible CU university staff and 12-month faculty members receive 22 days of paid vacation each year, or 14.7 hours each month. Your supervisor may approve requests to take vacation as it is earned. You may not accrue more than 44 days of vacation.

Vacation payouts

You cannot receive pay in exchange for vacation time while employed at CU. When you leave or retire from CU, you will receive a vacation payout of your earned, unused vacation time up to a maximum of 44 days.

Switching from 12-month faculty to 9-month faculty

When you switch from a 12-month to 9-month faculty contract, you may be paid for any earned, unused vacation that you accrued during your 12-month contract.

CU holidays and vacation days

If a CU-recognized holiday lands within the span of your vacation, you will not be charged vacation time for that day.

Leave Without Pay

While on leave without pay, you may not accrue vacation unless your absence is classified as military leave without pay or a furlough.

Classified Staff

Sick leave is earned and accrued at 6.66 hours (prorated for permanent part-time Employees) per month up to a maximum accrual rate of 360 hours for Employees: https://spb.colorado.gov/board-rules

Sick Leave Payouts

You may only receive a payout of your unused sick leave upon retiring from the university. CU limits that payout amount to ¼ of your unused leave, up to the maximum accrual rate.

When to Use Sick Leave

Sick leave is for health reasons only, including mental or physical illness, injury, a health condition, diagnostic and preventative examinations, treatment, and recovery. Accrued sick leave may be used for the health needs of: The employee or the employee's family members (related by blood, adoption, marriage, or civil union) including a child to whom the employee stands in loco parentis or a person who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a minor, domestic partners, in-laws, step relatives and for a person for whom the employee is responsible for providing or arranging health or safety-related care. Special consideration will also be given to any other person whose association with the employee is similar to a family member. Sick leave may also be used for safety reasons and after the death of a family member.

When an employee or employee’s family member is a victim of domestic abuse, stalking, sexual assault, or any other crime related to domestic violence and needs to seek medical attention, mental health care or other counseling, or victim services including legal services or relocation.

More information: https://spb.colorado.gov/board-rules

Enforced Sick Leave

If an appointing authority determines that you're sick or injured while at work, or in a state that otherwise impacts your and your co-workers' ability to perform, he/she may send you home and charge you sick leave. If you have exhausted your sick leave, CU will charge you vacation leave, or unpaid leave if the latter also is unavailable.

Extended Sick Leave

If you take sick leave for more than three consecutive days, for any health reason, you must provide a State of Colorado Medical Leave Form (or other official document containing the same information), which must be completed by a health care provider. The completed form must be returned within 15 days of being requested. If you fail to provide this documentation, you may be denied future leave, or receive disciplinary action.

Appointing authorities may also require a Medical Leave Form for absences of fewer than three days when they have a reasonable basis for suspecting sick leave abuse.

If an employee dies while actively employed, CU will compensate the widow(er) or estate for ¼ of the employee's unused sick leave, up to their maximum accrual.

University Staff and 12-Month Faculty

Full-time University Staff and 12-Month Faculty employees are eligible to receive 10.0 hours of sick each month. Part-time eligible employees accrue sick leave on a prorated basis considering the hours worked versus total work hours in the pay period month. There is no limit to the amount of sick leave an employee may accrue. More information on leave usage can be found in Policy APS 5062.

Sick Leave Payouts

Full-time University Staff and 12-Month Faculty are eligible to receive up to fifteen (15) working days (120 hours) of sick leave annually. Sick leave is not paid out upon separation of employment, except in limited circumstances. For more information see: https://www.cu.edu/regents/policy/11

9-Month Faculty
Full-time 9-Month Faculty are provided 44 hours of sick leave at the beginning of each fall and spring semester, usable immediately.

Faculty not working full-time are given a proration of sick hours, based on FTE, at the beginning of each fall and spring semester. The accrual begins on the first day of eligible appointment and does not have a limit.

Temporary Classified and University Staff
Temporary classified and university staff accrue sick leave at a rate of 0.034 sick hours for each hour worked.

Accrual hours are calculated as part of the payroll process and become available once payroll has processed the pay period.

• Employees must record both hours worked and leave taken on their timesheets in MyLeave. Hours must be approved by the supervisor.
• Accruals will display in the system after each pay period (monthly or hourly).
• Leave will be earned across all eligible positions and may be used to take leave from any eligible position.
• Employees may not use more leave time than the hours they are scheduled to work.
• Eligible employees will be able to carry a maximum of 48 hours of sick leave from one fiscal year to the next.

Temporary Faculty
(Including Lecturers & Some Student Faculty)
Accrual will be based on credit hours taught or the standard hours for the position with a maximum accrual of 3 days (24 hours) per semester based on 40 standard hours (100% FTE).

Example: Lecturer teaching 3 credit hours breaks down to an effort of 9 hours per week (22.5% FTE) which would equate to 5.4 hours of sick leave accrued in a semester.

• Sick leave accrual for contract employees will be granted after the census date each semester (summer, fall & spring) and may be used immediately.
• Accruals are available in the MyUCCS Portal on the Leave Balance Tile. Temporary faculty should refer to their Leave Balance Tile in their portal for the most accurate accrual information.
• Sick leave shall be used only when the University must replace the faculty member in the classroom, or when the dean or other administrative superior determines it is appropriate.
• Employees may not use more leave time than the hours they are scheduled to work.
• Eligible employees will be able to carry a maximum of 48 hours of sick leave from one fiscal year to the next.

Student Employees
For detailed information about student employee sick leave, visit the Student Employment Website.

Student employees earn one hour of sick leave per 30 hours worked. This breaks down to approximately .034 hours per hour worked for hourly employees.

Hourly employees may record both hours worked and hourly sick leave taken on their timesheet in MyLeave. Hours must be approved by the supervisor.
Accruals are available in the MyUCCS Portal on the Leave Balance Tile. Hourly employees should always refer to their Leave Balance Tile in their portal for the most accurate accrual information.
Leave will be earned across all eligible positions and may be used to take leave from any eligible position.
Employees may not use more leave time than the hours they are scheduled to work.
Hourly employees should not request more sick leave than they have available. Any hours not worked beyond the sick leave balance they can request will be considered unpaid leave. Nothing should be submitted in MyLeave for unpaid missed shifts. This could result in the hourly employee's pay being docked.
Eligible employees will be able to carry a maximum of 48 hours of sick leave from one fiscal year to the next.

All Other Employees
Employees not covered by any of the other above group rules accrue leave at a rate of 0.034 sick hours for each hour worked.

Accrual hours are calculated as part of the payroll process and become available once payroll has processed the pay period.

Secondary Appointments
Secondary appointments are primarily used to compensate employees for additional duties over and above their full-time appointment.

If an employee has a full-time appointment and a secondary appointment, no additional sick leave shall accrue under the secondary appointment.

If an employee has a less than full-time appointment and a secondary appointment, sick leave may accrue under the secondary appointment but the total sick leave accruals under both appointments are limited to the maximum annual accrual for the primary appointment.

No employee is eligible to accrue more than fifteen (15) working days of paid sick leave annually, earned as 10 hours per month.