As in previous years, UCLA plans to observe a Winter Holiday Closure during the 2015-2016 holiday season. This annual closure has allowed UCLA to achieve significant energy savings and continues to be a highly effective approach to power conservation for a specific period of time.
It is proposed that the campus close for 11 days between Thursday, December 24, 2015, and Sunday, January 3, 2016, with plans to reopen on Monday, January 4, 2016. This period includes four University paid holidays (December 24, 25, 31, 2015 and January 1, 2016). However, three days (December 28, 29, and 30, 2015) are not paid holidays.
University policy related to Curtailment Leave allows eligible employees to use three vacation days in advance of actual accrual. Staff employees and those academic employees who accrue vacation leave will need to use either vacation, compensatory time (if available), or leave without pay to compensate for these three work days.
For exclusively represented employees, labor contracts may include similar provisions, and requirements under the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act will be observed.
In accordance with University personnel policies and applicable labor agreements, employees will have the choice of the following options to cover the non-paid holidays during the closure period:
- Employees may utilize vacation days in advance of their actual accrual.
- Newly hired employees, represented and policy-covered, may utilize their vacation accruals during the closure before acquiring six continuous months on pay status.
- Employees with accrued compensatory time may elect to use it to cover the three days off or to offset the use of vacation time.
- Employees who do not wish to use vacation or compensatory time off may request leave without pay for the three working days based on departmental approval. In this case, employees will not lose hourly vacation or sick leave accruals for these three days.
The above options may be used in combination. Employees should notify their respective supervisors in advance as to which option or combination of options they propose to use.
During the planned break period, the UCLA Health System and certain essential-service facilities will continue to remain open. Deans, Vice Chancellors and Organization Heads to whom this responsibility has been delegated will need to determine if any facilities under their management will need to remain fully or partially open during the closure and, accordingly, arrange for appropriate staffing. Please send copies of these approval decisions to the offices of the Assistant Vice Chancellor, Facilities Management, and to Employee & Labor Relations.
Comments or questions regarding application of personnel policies during the closure may be sent to Lazetta Smith in Campus Human Resources at lazetta@chr.ucla.edu or to Maure Gardner in Health System Human Resources at mgardner@mednet.ucla.edu by September 14, 2015.
