Proposed Plan for 2019-20 Winter Holiday Closure

Dear Colleagues:

UCLA plans to observe a Winter Holiday Closure during the 2019-2020 holiday season. This annual closure is a highly effective approach to power conservation for a specific period of time and has allowed UCLA to achieve significant energy savings.

It is proposed that the campus close for 12 days between Saturday, December 21, 2019, and Wednesday, January 1, 2020, with plans to reopen on Thursday, January 2, 2020. This period includes four University paid holidays (December 24, 25, and 31, 2019, and January 1, 2020). This year, four days (December 23, 26, 27, and 30, 2019) are not paid holidays.

University policy related to Curtailment Leave allows eligible employees to use three vacation days in advance of actual accrual. This year, we have asked the Office of the President to approve an exception to the Vacation Leave and Curtailment Leave Policies to allow eligible employees to use four vacation days during the campus closure 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 four 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.

• Eligible 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 four 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 four working days based on departmental approval. In this case, employees will not lose hourly vacation or sick leave accruals for these four 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.

Please distribute this memo widely in your organization or department, and include employees who do not have regular access to a computer. Comments or questions regarding application of personnel policies or collective bargaining agreements may be sent to Anthony Solana, Director—Employee and Labor Relations, in Campus Human Resources at asolana@chr.ucla.edu or to Jane Miller, Director—Employee and Labor Relations in Health Human Resources at janemiller@mednet.ucla.edu by Friday, August 30, 2019.