Process Considerations:

• Legal Holidays must be entered using UWS Absences, an Absence Event, Employee Self-Service Absence Request, or via a Manager Self-Service Absence Request.

• There are nine legal holidays/year (72 hours for 1.0 FTE’s)University Staff – Non-exempt must enter time in .25 increments (e.x. 2.00, 2.25, 2.50, 2.75, etc.). Legal Holidays will only process using these increments, even if entered as a non .25 increment.  University Staff - Exempt should record 4 or 8 hours. 

• The amount of legal holiday time earned is based on the employee’s FTE percentage, and is calculated by multiplying the annual allocation of 72 hours by their FTE – see examples below: 

100% employee receives 8 hours per holiday with a total of 72 hours per year.

80% employee receives 6.5 hours per holiday (72 * .8 = 6.5 hours/holiday)

60% employee receives 4.75 hours per holiday (72 * .6 = 4.75 hours/holiday)

  Warning!  Only full time employees (FTE = 1) will have their legal holidays automatically loaded.  Employees with less than 1.0 FTE typically have a non-standard work day equal to their FTE * 8 for each day. (ex. a 0.80 employee will generally not be working exactly 6.4 hours each day). Part-time employees’ earnings and usage need to be monitored so the usage is not under or over by the year end.

Holiday Load Schedule - Full Time Bi-Weekly

The UWSS Service Operations will identify all active full time bi-weekly employees (FTE = 1) who are eligible for legal holidays and automatically load the Absence Events.  Legal holidays for bi-weekly employees will be loaded prior to the pay period opening.  A reminder communication will be sent out for the first two holidays including all active employees who are to be automatically loaded to absence event to familiarize campuses with the new procedure. 

Employees Working the Legal Holiday

Full Time Employees who report to work on an observed legal holiday for a full or partial day should have the pre-loaded absence event voided or adjusted using the procedure outlined in Managing Absences for a Prior Pay Period (Payroll Coordinator) in HRS.  Employees should mark the hours on their time sheet as a holiday worked. (See Entering Time When an Employee Works on a Legal Holiday in HRS )

Example 1:  If an employee works 4 hours on a legal holiday they would either need to add the 4.0 hours of legal holiday before the designated legal holiday loading period begins or a coordinator would need to change the 8.0 hours to 4.0 hours.  The employee would also need to record 4.0 hours of Holiday Worked on their timesheet just as they have done in the past.

Deferring the Legal Holiday

Full Time employees who do not wish to have any legal holiday hours charged on an observed legal holiday should have the absence voided.  This will allow them to earn 8 hours for the legal holiday but not be charged any legal holiday hours on the observed holiday.

Example:  If an employee puts in 40 hours of work in a week containing a legal holiday and they do not wish to use any legal holiday leave hours, the legal holiday earnings will be earned but there will be no usage for the period, effectively deferring 8 hours of legal holiday for the employee.

Employees with an Existing Absence Take on the Observed Legal Holiday

• Full Time 1.0 FTE Employees with a Legal Holiday Take already entered at the time the UWSS Service Operations attempts to load legal holidays will not have a legal holiday loaded for them. 

• If there was an existing partial day Legal Holiday take entered prior to the UWSS Service Operations's scheduled load, the hours that were already entered are assumed to be correct and no additional Legal Holiday hours will be loaded for that day. 

• Any other types of leave that are entered on the holiday will be ignored.

Example 1:  1.0 FTE Employee requests a half day of Legal Holiday on Independence Day as of 6/1, because they do not want to use 8.0 hours of legal holiday for Independence Day. The 4.0 hours of Legal Holiday are not changed to 8.

Example 2:  1.0 Employee requests a half day of Vacation on Labor Day as of 8/1.  The vacation hours entered on Labor Day would be ignored by  the legal holiday load, the system did not see a pre-existing Legal Holiday take, so it loads 8.0 hours.  The employee will have 12.0 hours total on this day and intervention by a payroll coordinator will be required.  

Recording a Floating Holiday

Calendar Year End Balances

Additional Resources

Related KBs:

• Managing Absences for a Prior Pay Period (Payroll Coordinator) in HRS
• Viewing Absence Management Results by Calendar in HRS
• Entering Absences via UWS Absences Page for University Staff Employees (Payroll Coordinators) in HRS

Related Links:

• UWSHR Website - Legal Holidays
• UWSS Online Payroll Calendar