Supervisors are determining consecutive furlough with vice chancellor (or chancellor) approval and the chief human resource officer review. The process starts with determining whether work is available for a position and/or within the unit, if funding is available, how long work will not be available and/or when funding will be available. Intermittent furlough is being determined at an institutional level among the vice chancellors, chancellor, and principal human resource officer.

Return dates from consecutive furlough vary, based on the job duties. Some consecutive day furloughs last two weeks, a month, and some are much of summer. Workforce-wide intermittent furloughs will be announced as soon as possible once they are determined.

Furlough decisions need to be based on work available and budget. Additional factors such as knowledge, skills, and abilities may be considered. A furlough should not be used as a tool to award or punish an employee based on their performance.

Academic and university staff will not be expected to shoulder the university’s financial burdens alone, and we will spread this impact as equitably as possible. Faculty will likely share some portion of the furlough expectations, which will require reductions in expectations related to scholarship and service.

By the numbers, yes. Furloughs for thosein higher paid positions and other categories are in the planning stages. For intermittent furloughs, no one can take more than one intermittent furlough day every two weeks, so that would help spread outthe impact for employees on a lower pay scale.

Both intermittent and consecutive dayfurloughs will be implemented on our campuses. Each has a different purpose. Overall, furloughs are designed to preserve job protection and benefits for our employees.

Consecutive day furloughs are a good tool for units that have lost funding, such as program revenue, and those that do not have work, due to the changes in our operating environment. If an employee doesn't have work to do or funding for the work, this unit is encouraged to consider furloughing an employee during these periods through the consecutive day furlough process. This allows them access to those benefits or to maximize a particular benefit.

Intermittent furloughs are a good tool to address overall budget shortfalls or to make up for past losses while also ensuring that the university can continue to operate with theemployee's valuable contribution to our mission.

The principal HR and Affirmative Action officer reviews the merit of each consecutive furlough to ensure there is no incident of targeting protected classes of workers and to oversee the overall equity. It may at times appear unfair when one unit has more furlough days or a different furlough structure than another unit. The HR team is examining furlough plans, and when there is something that could be more beneficial for the employee, it is presented as an alternative. Our team has been very receptive to those plans. The business need has to drive how the furlough process is administered.

Faculty have requested the flexibility of half-day furloughs because of their teaching schedule. One size won't fit all. We will be as fair as we can, but we also have to be driven by the mission of the university and by the choices we can legally make.

No, there are no plans to do any further VSIP's. We do not have the funds to support a VSIP.

If an employee ends employment with UWSP, appropriate leave would be paid out in accordance with the UWS leave policies. At this time there is no change to the current drafted or finalized change to the UW System Administrative Vacation, Paid Leave Banks, and Vacation Cash Payouts Policy (1210).

It will be extended. We now have UW System Administrative Vacation, Compensatory Time and Personal Holiday Carryover Policy (1200- Interim 05), which describes the carryover extension.span>

Individuals who request a voluntary furlough are making a personal choice of reduction of work. If you choose to submit a request for voluntary furlough, thank you. While we certainly want to honor voluntary furlough requests, there are business needs to consider prior to confirming the requested furlough. The request needs supervisor and vice chancellor approval to ensure work can be postponed or coordinated to others without hardship. Unemployment insurance would likely not be awarded in this situation. The state Department of Workforce Development determines unemployment insurance benefits paid.

As with many considerations for furlough, institutions are still reviewing how individuals on a visa may be impacted. When intermittent furlough is announced for UWSP, details will include how the furlough(s) are being implemented.

Only consecutive-day furloughs are an option for voluntary leave without pay. Individuals who request a voluntary furlough are making a personal choice of reduction of work. If you choose to submit a request for a voluntary leave without pay, thank you. While we certainly want to honor voluntary furlough requests, there are business needs to consider prior to confirming the requested furlough. The request needs supervisor and vice chancellor approval to ensure work can be postponed or coordinated to others without hardship.

In accordance with the UWS Interim Furlough Policy (1200-Interim 04), a furlough is a temporary unpaid forced leave during which an employee does not report for work and does not earn a wage. Therefore, an intermittent furlough day needs to be applied to a normal workday for the individual and cannot be designation for a holiday.

Yes! We received confirmation that intermittent furlough can be taken before and after a legal holiday. Additionally, the use of intermittent furlough should not impact the use of a floating holiday.

The purpose of the workforce-wide furloughs is to cover budget shortfalls and any lapse of funding. In order to ensure continued grant funding, positions which are externally grant funded (133, 144, and 156 accounts) are excluded from furloughs.

The intermittent furloughs are considered a work-force wide furlough and cannot be appealed.

Work with your supervisor to determine what support/resources are possible to ensure coverage can be made or work altered. We all need to be supportive of each individual and department during this time and know that delays may occur, and in some cases, tasks may not occur.

FMLA does not override the need for intermittent furlough assignment. Individuals who are on a continuous Family Medical Leave and using paid leave, are assigned furlough. Individuals who are on continuous unpaid FMLA do not have intermittent furlough because they are not in pay status. Individuals on continuous FMLA will be contacted by Human Resources to confirm the furlough assignment and work through the process of taking intermittent furloughs if needed, during continuous paid FMLA.

Intermittent furlough days can be scheduled and taken in 1/2 day or up to a 1 (one) full day within a biweekly period. See the most current biweekly period schedule based on the most current workforce-wide furlough timeframe. Intermittent furloughs cannot be scheduled and taken to have several days off in order to have more than one intermittent furlough day during the same biweekly period. This guidance is in accordance with the UWS Interim Furlough Policy (1200-Interim 04).

Information used was based on known employee appointment information effective for the start of the academic year.

The following items were used to determine the number of days for furlough assignment:

• An employee's pay basis (annual or academic year)
• An individual's annualized salary
• An individual's FTE

Intermittent furloughs are currently for the dates August 24, 2020 through June 5, 2021. Time periods are based on bi-weekly pay periods, even for monthly paid employees. The first and last day an individual may take furlough is based on the individual’s pay basis. See the below table for details. For the complete biweekly time period information see the Biweekly Time Periods and Pay Basis Timeframe document.

Yes, the eForm is a tool that allows you to communicate with your supervisor and up to the division head (Vice Chancellor) on what days you expect to be gone. It also allows HR and payroll to run comparison reports to ensure all employees are being treated fairly and that the furlough policy is being used appropriately. However, the eForm does NOT account for your furlough days within the payroll system. Each employee must still complete their timesheet as described in the resources.

If you have been assigned at least 3 days, 3 of them are the fixed/pre-set furlough days (unless your duties/position require you to work those fixed days).

If you are required to work on a pre-set day or your appointment is less than a 1.0 and you normally would not work on the day of the week that the fixed day falls, reference the Scheduling and Taking a Workforce-wide Intermittent Furlough Day Guide on how to request alternative furlough days.

Before entering intermittent furlough into the time reporting system, individuals request the time within the e-Form system. See the Scheduling and Taking a Workforce-wide Intermittent Furlough Day Guide for full reporting details.

The intermittent furloughs are implemented in accordance with the UWSA 1200- Interim 04, Interim: Furlough policy. The policy is clear in that: "Intermittent Furlough Assignment: A furlough assigned in full-day or half-day increments that must not exceed one day every two weeks, coinciding with a biweekly pay period." We used simple rounding in order to comply with the requirements of the System policy.

For example, if assigned five days, you will take five full days.

Ideally and equitably, all of the days should be 8 hours and since the FTE for the year determined the number, it would be fair to require them all to be 8 hours. However, the policy wording leads us to implement as written and according to the work schedule of the person furloughed at the time the furlough is taken.

The assigned furlough days are based on an academic year. If you are contracted semester to semester, divide the number of assigned days in half to determine your fall number days. If you are contracted with the same FTE for spring, your number of days will remain assigned; take the other half of the days in spring. If your FTE changes for spring, your number of days may be impacted. If your number of days changes based on your spring FTE, you will receive an updated number of assigned days to take for spring.

For the fall semester, you will be active through January 7, 2021. Therefore, you may plan to take furlough (up to one day per biweekly period) after classes end through January 7, 2021.

The furloughs days are based on the annual appointments, annual FTE (for biweekly or annual employees), or most current FTE (for academic year employees) when the data was compiled. Yes, this may seem disproportionate, but the definitions have been set in System policy.

Furlough days must be taken on a normal work/business day for the position.

• For monthly paid and biweekly exempt (does not earn overtime) employees, including faculty/instructors, this means taking a furlough day Monday through Friday.
• For hourly positions, if the position is scheduled to work weekends with other particular days off during the week, a weekend day may be taken as a furlough day. The typical weekend off cannot be taken as furlough a furlough day.
  

The 12-month employee also had summer furlough days – Rationale: While academic year furlough employees had the ability to engage, even if they chose not to, in additional employment, camps, private lessons, symposiums, and other economic opportunities, the 12-month employees had summer furlough days and did not have the option of other full-time employment during those summer months.

• In the event of a work-related emergency, upon determination, coordinate with your supervisor to determine an updated date, preferably within the same bi-weekly period and to submit a new request.

If you are expected to work on a university pre-determined furlough day, speak with your supervisor to schedule an alternative day, preferably within the same biweekly time period of the pre-determined furlough day. Once you determine a date, complete the Employee Furlough Submission e-Form in the E-Form system. In the notes/comment section of the form indicate which pre-determined date the request is replacing.

Intermittent furloughs need to be taken in whole day increments for a biweekly period. This was the Office of General Counsel’s guidance. Therefore, you can 1 furlough day in two ½ day increments within a biweekly period (see the intermittent time period Q&A on this page). The exception is if you are assigned a ½ day increment within your assigned days. Then, you need to take a ½ day during a biweekly period which does not have the other ½ day.

The expectation is that departments which have University Staff Temporary Employees (USTEs) will limit hours to meet essential needs or services. Cost savings for USTEs will be gained through this minimal scheduling expectation.

New hires will receive prorated furlough days based on their hire month. See the Proration for New Hires and Employment Separations (Workforce-wide Furlough Academic Year 2020-2021) document for full proration details.

Supervisors will need to have conversations with any new employee to ensure they have this understanding. While Human Resources will send them a notice after hire, we do not want that to be the first time they learn about the intermittent furlough assignment.

If you have formally provided notice, your intermittent furlough is prorated further based on the number of months you are still employed. See the Proration for New Hires and Employment Separations (Workforce-wide Furlough Academic Year 2020-2021) document for full proration details.

If you formally take a new position your employment record will be reviewed. If there is a change in the salary threshold, the days may be prorated to adjust for the change. If there is no change in the salary threshold, a new number of days will be calculated on the FTE of the new position. Since a position change is for current employees, the start date of the new role is not a factor for the number of days assigned.