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CALS Employment Guidelines for Emergency Facility Closures

Purpose

When there is a required closure or disruption of a workplace due to unplanned events including but not limited to (loss of utilities such as electric, gas, water, flooding, construction, etc) supervisors are encouraged to use the following guidelines with regard to directing the work of employees. This does not replace the University Inclement Weather Policy, in cases of full campus closures, supervisors must follow the direction of that policy.

  1. Employee health and safety is a top priority, if the disruption creates a health or safety issue, redirect employees to safe alternative work location or direct employees to stay out of workplace until it is safe to return.
  2. During the period of the disruption, supervisors should use the following decision tree to guide continuation of work and pay during the disruption.
  3. Each employee may be impacted in a unique manner, please apply the best solution based upon the work needs of the unit:

If…

Then…

Additional Guidance

Alternate work location(s), including home office location are available:

Direct employees to complete all responsibilities in a suitable alternative location, including a home location if suitable. 

No flex place agreement required for short-term, less than 10 business day disruptions.

Carefully consider source of funds particularly for work on grants or restricted sources.

For instance, a technician on an NSF grant, may be redirected to work in another lab, but the funding likely will need to change if this new work is not associated with the current NSF grant funding the technician salary.

Alternate work assignments are available, AND;

The employee’s skills, knowledge and abilities may support other units or departments during the disruption;

Supervisors are encouraged to redirect employees to support that work assuming funding sources will support it.

Example: Redirect a finance professional to support another department or unit; redirect a administrative assistant to support another project or department;

Alternative work location and/or assignments are available; however employee requests to utilize accruals to pay themselves during period of disruption.

At supervisor discretion, employees may use available accruals during period of disruption.

Employees may use HAP or Vacation as appropriate based upon employee-defined needs.

If there is no alternative work and/or work location available, and the period of disruption is less than 3 working days.

Supervisors may approve up to a maximum of 3 working days of paid leave during the period of disruption. Employees will be directed to use “Unscheduled Closure Paid Not Worked” For periods exceeding 3 working days, CALS Human Resources must approve.

 

4. During the period of the disruption, supervisors should provide regular communications to employees regarding the expectations for work. Communications should include at a minimum:

  • Status of the disruption and estimated time to resolve if known
  • Employee expectations for continuation of work, use of accruals, or use of paid leave
  • Supervisor should notify Human Resources and/or Department Administrative Leadership regarding the expectation of how employees will be compensated, or allowed to use leave accruals during this period. This may be done by simply copying the Human Resources Contact for your workgroup on communications to employees.