Non-Instructional Unclassified Furlough Reporting Requirements
You will need to report furlough time used on a new form called the Furlough Time Report (Sample form here) which you will start receiving later this month. The Furlough Time Report is a new concept for unclassified staff. You will only need to fill it out and submit it in months in which you have used furlough time. In those months, however, you will also need to report your total hours worked each day and any paid leave used during the seven-day period (Sun – Sat) of the week in which you used furlough time. This is a federal labor law (Fair Labor Standards Act) requirement. Even though you hold a salaried position, federal law requires that you be considered an hourly employee in any week in which you take furlough time. As such, you are required to report all hours worked in those weeks and the University must pay you for all hours worked.
This is where it gets even more complicated. Salaried employees typically work more than 40 hours of work per week. If full-time employees take a furlough day and then work more than 32 hours in the other six days of that Sunday – Saturday period, the University would have to pay them for those hours thus negating the effect of the furlough. Consequently, for full-time employees, during the week furlough time is used, actual hours worked and paid leave time used plus furlough time added together cannot exceed 40 hours per seven-day week. If the total exceeds 40 hours, the furlough will be voided and will have to be used at a later date. For part-time employees, during the week furlough time is used, actual hours worked and paid leave time used plus furlough time added together cannot exceed the number of hours resulting from multiplying your appointment percentage times 40 hours in a seven-day week. For example, a person on a 50% appointment cannot exceed 20 hours (.5 x 40); a 33% appointment cannot exceed 13 hours (.33 x 40); and a 25% appointee cannot exceed 10 hours (.25 x 40). If the total exceeds the limit, the furlough will be voided and will have to be used at a later date.
We realize that this is difficult and onerous, but we simply have no choice in the matter and ask for your cooperation.
