EPA Non-Faculty Leave Transfer or Payout

The following summarizes guidelines for payout or transfer of leave balances for EPA non-faculty positions when terminating employment, changing positions at UNC-Chapel Hill or in moving to or from UNC-Chapel Hill to another State agency or campus of the UNC System. 

In a situation when an employee is eligible to either be paid out or transfer leave when moving between positions at UNC-Chapel Hill, the decision on which option to exercise is the employees alone and may not be required to be one or the other by the "losing" or "gaining" department. For specific information on leave eligibility and leave earning rates, click here.

An employee may elect either a payout of all eligible types of leave balances or a transfer, but not a combination or mix of options. Therefore, an employee may not choose for example to payout annual leave but transfer bonus leave or to partially transfer a portion of available annual leave or bonus leave and payout the rest of this type of leave balance.

Bonus leave when eligible for payout by UNC-Chapel Hill or for transfer into another position at UNC-Chapel Hill is paid out or transferred in full. Bonus leave is not subject to maximum payout or transfer limits.

Annual (vacation) leave, when eligible for payout and when payout is chosen, is subject to a maximum payout limit of up to:

• one day for each month worked less the total number of annual leave days taken during the employment period when the individual has been employed a total of 24 months or less by one or more local or state government agencies, or;
• 240 hours for individuals employed more than 24 months by one or more local or state government agencies, or;
• 240 hours for individuals in EPA non-faculty Tier I appointments regardless of months of service.

If the leave payout is for a less than full-time employee, the above limits are pro-rated based on the employee's FTE percentage.

When the employee is eligible for and chooses transfer of leave to another leave earning position at UNC-Chapel Hill, the eligible leave balance may transfer in full without the above noted limitations.

The below guidelines note the circumstances under which an employee is eligible to choose leave transfer and/or payout.

Unused annual leave in excess of 240 hours is converted to sick leave at the end of every calendar year only and not forfeited due to transfer to another position at UNC-Chapel Hill. However, excess annual leave unable to be transferred and/or paid out may be donated to the Voluntary Shared Leave Program.

 

Employees both leaving the University and employment with the State of North Carolina are due payout of available annual and bonus leave up to permitted maximums.

The employee may negotiate with the Department Head the use of some or all available leave balances in determing the final termination date in lieu of payout for all or part of such leave balances. Any such arrangement is subject to mutual agreement between the employee and the Department Head. Otherwise, the payout of available leaves is the default option.

Employee may elect either transfer or payout of available annual and bonus leave up to permitted maximums.

Employee may elect either transfer or payout of available annual and bonus leave up to permitted maximums.

Nine-month faculty positions are non-leave earning and not eligible to accrue or use annual or bonus leave. Therefore, any leave balances must be paid out to the employee up to the permitted maximums prior to movement into the new position. No leave transfer option is available.

Employee may elect either transfer or payout of available annual and bonus leave up to permitted maximums when moving from an EPA non-faculty position to a different SPA position or from SPA position to a different EPA non-faculty position. 

An exception is when an existing SPA position occupied by the employee is reclassified to EPA non-faculty status without a competitive recruitment, in which case leave balances transfer but no payout option is available.

Note: SPA employees transferring to an EPA non-faculty position are eligible for annual leave accrual of 24 days per year except for Tier I Senior Academic and Administrative Officer (SAAO) positions which earn 26 days per year. SPA employees moving to an EPA position who have a higher SPA annual leave accrual rate do not take this higher rate with them into their new EPA position. No exceptions to this policy are permitted as EPA non-faculty leave accrual rates are established pursuant to EPA non-faculty employment policies approved by the Board of Trustees.

Employee may elect payout of available annual and bonus leave up to permitted maximums. If the State agency or UNC System campus receiving the employee has a policy accepting leave from another State agency, the employee may optionally elect to transfer such leave without payout from UNC-Chapel Hill subject to the new agencies policies and limits on such transfers.

If the new agency accepts only a portion of available leave, the employee may be paid out by UNC-Chapel Hill for the portion of eligible leave not accepted and then transfer the rest to the new agency. The receiving agency or UNC Campus can obtain a certification of an employee's leave balance that was not paid out on termination from UNC-Chapel Hill by contacting Human Resources Records & Data Management at 962-2894.

Annual leave and bonus leave does not transfer to UNC-Chapel Hill from other State agencies or UNC campuses and should be paid out by such agency or campus in accordance with their specific policies.

Note that each State agency or UNC campus may have different policies with regard to the acceptance of leave from other agencies. The acceptance of leave from UNC-Chapel Hill by another agency or UNC System campus does not indicate reciprocal status with regard to leave acceptance by UNC-Chapel Hill.