Campus Human Resources

Dear Colleagues:

Following campuswide review, we are writing to confirm plans for this year’s Winter Holiday Closure. UCLA will close for 12 days between Saturday, December 21, 2019, and Wednesday, January 1, 2020, and will 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.

In response to UCLA’s request, the Office of the President has approved an exception to the Vacation Leave and Curtailment Leave Policies to allow eligible employees to use four vacation days in advance of actual accrual during the campus closure. 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 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 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 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 need to determine if any facilities under their management 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.

For your convenience, Frequently Asked Questions regarding the upcoming 2019-20 Winter Holiday Closure are available in Related Information. If you have additional questions after referring to the article, please contact Anthony Solana, Director of Employee and Labor Relations in Campus Human Resources at asolana@chr.ucla.edu or Jane Miller, Director of Employee and Labor Relations in Health Human Resources at janemiller@mednet.ucla.edu.

Sincerely,