Skip to Main Content

Service Credit - Vacation Accrual & Service Awards

Employment service credit determines service credit for the purpose of vacation accrual and service award eligibility.

  • Only qualifying service at the University of California, including the Department of Energy Laboratories, the State of California, and the California State University is counted.
  • Qualifying Service is a month on pay status at 50% or more.
  • Service need not be continuous to be counted.
  • Periods of leave with pay, military leave with pay, and leave without pay because of work-incurred injury or illness, are included in the determination of the length of qualifying service.
    For information on verifying service credit for the State of California click on "The Prior State of California Service Credit" Form. For information on verifying service credit for retirement purposes click on the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP) link.

Vacation Accrual and Service Award Process for Staff Employees

The University provides paid vacation leave to eligible staff employees who are appointed at 50% or more of full time for six or more months. The amount of vacation earned increases with the length of service.

In addition to being eligible to receive a Service Award, employees are given a higher accrual rate for vacation as they accumulate service. The standard accrual rate increase is two additional hours per month per service milestone, up to 16 hours maximum. Accrual rate may vary by personnel program. (Please refer to the Vacation Leave Accrual Codes link for specifics.)

Process:

A.  Departmental Responsibilities:

  1. Upon hire or appointment to a title eligible to earn vacation, the department assigns a Leave Code to the employee, using the Vacation Accrual chart (Please refer to the Vacation Leave Accrual Codes link in Related Information.)

    I.  For employees with no previous qualifying service:

    Record in the EDB the lowest Leave code appropriate for the employee's title based on Program Type. (e.g. The lowest code for Tier 1 Professional and Support Staff  is  “A”, accruing at 10 hours per month; and for Tier 2, Managers & Senior Professionals, “B” is the lowest, accruing at 12 hours per month.)

                  II.  For employees with previous qualifying service:

  1. Until the previous service is verified, use the lowest Leave code appropriate for the employee’s title as described in #1 above.
  2. If the employee’s previous qualifying service is with other UC campuses or State of California institutions, the employee must complete the “Prior State of California Service Credit” form to obtain verification of prior service.
  3. After the confirmation of prior service credit is verified and received from the former institution, attach it to the “Request For Confirmation of Employment Service Credit Form” and forward to Campus Human Resources (CHR), Policy & Personnel Services.
  4. If applicable processes any retroactive or adjustment of vacation accruals for the employee (only after notification from CHR – Policy & Personnel Services).

   2.   Monitor employee’s service credit and recording of actions that impacts service credit (e.g., leaves of absences with no pay, reclassifications, promotions, etc.) ensuring that the service credit and accruals are correct on employees’ records in EDB.

   3.   Consult with CHR – Policy & Personnel Services regarding leave accrual and service award issues or concerns.


B.  CHR – Policy and Personnel Services Responsibilities:

  1. Contact the department when an employee is approaching or has reached a service anniversary.
  2. Review and verify the department’s “Request for Confirmation of Employment Service Credit” form when received.
  3. Consult with department on how to resolve issues, i.e. service credit months, Leave codes, adjusting vacation balance, retro adjustments, etc.
  4. Record verified prior and current service months on employee’s EDB record as appropriate.
  5. Forward recipient information (name, mailing address, years of service) to Vendor for service award.

C.  Vendor's Responsibility:

Mails customized brochure, gift (if applicable) or lapel pin to employee, with ordering instructions for gift selection based on years of service.

 

Campus Human Resources, Personnel Services
Phone: (310) 794-3147 | Fax: (310) 794-0865

Related Links