The Staff Handbook is currently being revised to incorporate recent changes in Board policy and administrative procedures. You will receive a copy of the revised handbook when it is complete. The major changes since the last handbook was printed are detailed below.
- Effective July 1, 2009, vacation and sick (medical) leave may be used once an employee has accrued leave. There will no longer be waiting periods associated with the use of these leaves. Vacation and sick time will begin to accrue at the end of the first month. The first month shall be determined in this manner: if the employee's first day of employment is between the 1st and the 15th of the month, that is considered the first month; if the employee's first day of employment is on or after the 16th, the first month is considered to be the month following the beginning of employment. Employees must be employed by the University for a minimum of six months before the University will pay for unused vacation leave upon termination of employment. If the University terminates employment for cause, forfeiture of unused vacation leave may result.
- The cap on accumulation of accrued vacation for individuals who earn four weeks (160 hours) per year has been increased from seven weeks (280 hours) to eight weeks (320 hours).
- Nonexempt (hourly) staff may now report sick or vacation leave used in increments of one-half hour or more. This has been changed from a minimum increment of one hour.
- The cap on sick leave which can be used has been eliminated. It was previously capped at 120 days. REMINDER: Unused earned sick leave is reported to MOSERS for retirement credit upon termination of a vested employee.
- A copy of the Medical and Family Leave guidelines for staff, as approved by the Board of Governors on June 15, 2002 is available on-line. This is the University’s policy which is considered independently from the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which is federal law. The two policies may be enacted concurrently or independently, depending on the circumstances. It is important that all absences of more than three days for medical or family reasons be reported to the Benefits Coordinator so a determination of applicability can be made.
- Funeral Leave – In the event of the death of an employee's family member, he or she shall be granted necessary time off with compensation according to the following: For husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandchild, step parent, or step child, up to a maximum of three working days. For father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, aunt, uncle, grandparent, grandparent of spouse, great grandparent, or great grandchild, one working day, unless the employee can show cause for granting up to three days maximum. In this instance, the extra two days will be charged to earned sick leave or accrued vacation. Shift differential shall apply to funeral leave. In addition, employees may be excused from work with pay for the purpose of serving as pallbearers, for up to four hours at a time, subject to the limitations that employees be so excused with pay no more than twice in one year and that an amount of time equal to the excused time be deducted from accumulated sick leave. The employee may, with their supervisor's permission, use accrued vacation or accrued sick leave, to take additional days associated with funeral leave.
- A copy of the Medical, Family, and Funeral Leave approved by the Board of Governors is available at http://vpaa.truman.edu/mfleave.pdf. If you have questions about these changes or want clarification on other benefits, contact Human Resources or Payroll.
- Health insurance is effective the first day of the month following employment.
- Jury Duty - Any employee covered in this agreement who shall be called for jury service shall report the call to his or her immediate supervisor and will be relieved from his or her duties for the reasonable time required for rendering such jury service. The employee shall be entitled to retain all compensation received for such jury service and no deduction shall be made in his/her regular compensation for the reasonable time he/she is absent from duty on account of responding for such jury service. "Reasonable time absent" will be interpreted to mean that an employee scheduled for the day shift and excused from jury duty is expected to report back to work for the balance of the shift if there are at least four hours work left on his/her assigned schedules. Employees normally scheduled to work on the second or third shift who are selected for jury duty will be expected to report for work in accordance with their assigned schedules if they are excused from jury service before having served four hours or more. The above would not apply if the jury duty is in another part of the state and travel time to the campus would make it unreasonable to do so.