(a) Definitions
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Worked Time
The time during which an employee performs duties and responsibilities for UCAR. Worked time does not include any benefit hours such paid time off (PTO), vacation, sick leave, sick leave reserve, family sick leave, salary continuation, military, worker's compensation, jury duty/voting, family death, facility closure, leave without pay or hours covered by UCAR's Educational Assistance Program but does include holiday time under the provisions for overtime below.
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Non-Worked Time
Includes benefit hours such as paid time off (PTO), vacation, sick leave, sick leave reserve, family sick leave, salary continuation, military, worker's compensation, jury duty/voting, family death, facility closure, leave without pay and hours covered by UCAR's Educational Assistance Program.
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Exempt/Non-Exempt
Federally mandated classification of jobs for purposes of establishing eligibility for overtime pay. Non-exempt employees must be paid overtime (time and one-half) for hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a work week. Exempt employees are ineligible for overtime pay.
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Work Week
Sunday through Saturday.
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Pay (Payroll) Period
The two-week period, according to UCAR's bi-weekly payroll schedule, for which employees receive paychecks.
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Payday
The Friday following the end of the bi-weekly payroll period.
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Overtime Pay and Call Back Pay
Extra pay, beyond the regular pay, for work performed in excess of a 40 hour work week for non-exempt employees. Call back pay is issued for specific ‘call back' hours, regardless of the normal 40 hour work week for non-exempt staff only.
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Travel Time
For pay calculation purposes for nonexempt employees, the time from departure from home or office to point of destination, excluding overnight stays or flights and normal meal hours.
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Field Assignment
A temporary assignment that requires an employee to participate in a registered field project at a site other than the regular work location for a period of more than 14 days. The following circumstances do not constitute a field assignment: (1) a temporary work location within normal commuting radius from which the employee could return nightly to the regular work location; (2) attendance of any length at scientific or administrative meetings, seminars, conferences, or training courses; (3) field project site visits; or (4) visits to other organizations for scientific discussions or collaborative research activities.
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Shipboard Pay
Employees stationed on board ship during field projects are paid shipboard-assignment pay beginning on the first day of shipboard duty regardless of the length of duty. Shipboard-assignment pay is equal to $50 per day.
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Casual Employee
Appointment to work occasional and irregular hours on an as-needed basis and not to exceed 1,000 hours worked per 12-month period.
(b) Procedures
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Time/Payroll Card Process
Time/payroll cards are created at 12:01 am Sunday morning at the beginning of each pay period for exempt and non-exempt staff, and upon login request for Casual employees. At the end of each payroll period, all employees must complete and submit their own time/payroll cards; nonexempt and hourly employees must also obtain their supervisor's authorization on all worked and non-worked hours. If the employee is on travel or vacation, the supervisor's submittal signature (or equivalent authorized signature) is accepted. In this case, the supervisor's submitted signature (or equivalent authorized signature) certifies that the employee hours reported are accurate or will be corrected by the employee upon his/her return. Employees submit the cards with the proper signatures electronically to the Payroll Office.
Time/payroll cards submitted without the proper authorization will be overridden by payroll to continue the normal payroll process. If time/payroll cards are submitted repeatedly without proper authorities, employees will be asked to come to the Payroll Office to clear their overrides before their pay is issued. If no time/payroll card is received or Payroll is not notified in writing of hours worked, a payroll check can processed (and the automatic deposit canceled if relevant) but the employee could be required to pick up his/her payroll check on payday and submit a time/payroll card at that time. Pay, in this case, is for vacation or PTO hours based on the employee's normal (full- or part-time) status.
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Emergency Payroll Advances
In emergency situations, an employee may receive a payroll advance, if approved by the Director of Human Resources. The employee must repay this advance in the following pay period.
- Calculation of Pay
- Non-exempt employees must report actual time worked per project (or account key) on their time card. Paid and unpaid leave is also reported for each pay period.
Exempt employees must report both time worked and leave taken. For full time salaried employees the total time reported (worked time plus leave time) must equal 80 hours. (80 hours is considered equivalent to two weeks worked.) Exempt employees may use PTO, traditional or sick leave hours in four-hour increments only; non-exempt employees may use PTO, traditional or sick leave hours in units of one hour or more. See UCAR Benefits Manual for additional information.
Exempt employees who work more than 80 hours in a pay period and work on multiple projects will report 80 hours. In this case, the employee will determine the percentage of time worked for each and prorate the 80 hours based on the percentage of time per project. For example: An exempt employee works 100 hours in a pay period on two projects where the effort on Project #1 was 60% of the time worked and the effort on Project #2 was 40%. The exempt employee would charge 48 hours (60% of 80 hours) to Project #1 and 32 hours (40% of 80 hours) to Project #2 for a total of 80 hours in the pay period. In the case where non-worked hours are used in the pay period, the non-worked hours should be recorded first in their entirety and then the worked time percentage allocation is calculated on the remaining worked hours and recorded appropriately.
Other Types of Pay
A. Holiday Pay
Special pay for holidays is provided for employees whose job assignments make it mandatory for them to work on UCAR paid holidays. This provision is intended to cover employees who have continuous shift assignments or when special requirements make it necessary to work on an approved UCAR holiday. Holiday premium pay is not available to Director level or above.
1. If a nonexempt employee does not work on a holiday, he/she is paid holiday pay in proportion to the percentage of full-time he/she is employed. If his/her total work hours including holiday pay exceeds 40 hours in that week, he/she is paid at time and a half for the additional hours.
2. All nonexempt employees who work on a holiday receive holiday pay in proportion to their FTE plus pay at time and a half for holiday hours worked. Casual employees are not eligible to receive holiday pay; they receive only time and a half for hours worked on a holiday.
3. Exempt staff are not paid for the following activities undertaken on holidays: travel associated with normal job responsibilities, elective work at home or the office, field project site visits, UCAR meetings, professional society meetings, other meetings at which scientific papers are presented, visits to universities or other institutions, seminars or workshops, or any other meetings that fall within the range of duties expected of employees in their particular job assignments. Exempt employees who are required to work on an observed holiday due to participation in a field project or a continuous shift assignment receive their regular pay and holiday pay for that day.
B. Overtime Pay
Paid overtime occurs only when required by workload and approved in advance by the employee's supervisor. Nonexempt employees receive overtime pay at a rate of one and a half times their regular pay for all hours worked over 40 hours per week. The exception to this is ‘food service' staff are paid overtime if hours worked exceeds 12 in a 24 hour period, regardless of the rest of the weeks' work hours.
C. Official Closures
Closure may pertain only to selected facilities; the extent of a specific closure will be announced at the time the closure is declared.
During times of official facility closures:
Nonexempt employees should charge actual worked time to the appropriate account key; hours not worked due to the closure of the facility should be charged as ‘Closure' on the time card (see section of the time card labeled Leave Hours). Essential nonexempt employees who continue to work during a closure receive overtime pay for all hours worked after a closure is declared.
Exempt employees have a range of options to deal with official closures including working from home, flextime, vacation/PTO (paid time off); exempt employees cannot report time as ‘Closure'.
Casual employees who are scheduled to work during the period of closure are paid for their scheduled hours with supervisor approval.
All employees on vacation/PTO or sick leave when an inclement weather closure is declared are unaffected and, therefore, must count closure hours as vacation/PTO or sick leave.
D. Travel Pay
Nonexempt employees are paid for travel time in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Employees are not paid for traveling from home to their regular work site, but nonexempt employees are paid for traveling to a temporary remote work site up to a maximum of eight hours per calendar day. When calculating overtime, travel time is considered time worked except for overnight flights, overnight stays, and meal times.
E. Field-Assignment Pay
Staff participating in a registered field project receive field-assignment pay for each day of a trip of more than 14 days as a supplement to all other reimbursed travel costs. Field-assignment pay is equal to one-half of the per diem rate specified for the employee's primary work location. Each trip is considered separately for the purposes of qualifying for field-assignment pay. Field-assignment pay is considered compensation and is reported as income.
To authorize field-assignment pay, the person authorizing the travel must verify the project is registered at Travel Office-Field Projects and sign the appropriate line on the "Travel Authorization" (link) form. The Travel Office calculates the amount of field-assignment pay based on the number of days in the trip as specified on an approved "Travel Voucher" submitted by the employee. The Travel Office provides the Payroll Office with the total amount of field-assignment pay to be paid and the program to be charged. Field-assignment pay is processed through the regular payroll process.
If an assignment requires more than one year's residence at a temporary work location, consideration is given by the Laboratory or Program Director to a change in the regular work location of the employee. When such a change in work location is made, UCAR pays the moving costs as provided in the UCAR Relocation Guidelines. Any field-assignment pay ceases when a field-assignment location becomes a regular work location.
F. Shipboard-Assignment Pay
Employees stationed on board ship during field projects are paid shipboard-assignment pay beginning on the first day of shipboard duty regardless of the length of duty. Shipboard-assignment pay is equal to $50 per day and is provided as a supplement to per diem and all other reimbursed travel costs. Shipboard-assignment pay is considered compensation and is reported as income.
To authorize shipboard-assignment pay, the person authorizing the travel must verify the project is registered and sign the appropriate line on the "Travel Authorization" form. The Travel Office calculates the amount of shipboard-assignment pay based on the number of days on board ship as specified on an approved "Travel Voucher" submitted by the employee. An employee may not receive both shipboard-assignment and field-assignment pay for the same day. The Travel Office provides the Payroll Office with the total amount of shipboard-assignment pay to be paid and the program to be charged. Shipboard-assignment pay is processed through the regular payroll process.
G.
Call-Back Pay
Nonexempt employees who are called back to their work site outside of their regular working hours are paid for a minimum of two hours of work. If the call back requires more than two hours of work, all hours are paid. All call-back hours are paid as overtime.
H.
Jury Duty and Court Appearances
Any employee, except Casual, called for jury duty receives pay for the actual UCAR working hours the duty requires, up to a total of eight hours per day and 40 hours per week based on FTE; such hours are reported as leave hours, jury duty. Jury fees and reimbursed expenses may be retained by the employee.
Any employee asked to attend a court appearance on behalf of UCAR receives pay for the actual hours spent on such duty.
I. Partial Pay Period
Partial pay periods are calculated as follows:
Exempt Employees
- annual salary / 52 = weekly salary
- weekly salary / 5 = daily salary
- daily salary x days worked = salary due
Nonexempt Employees
- hourly rate = annual salary / 2,080 per year (40 working hours per week x 52 weeks = 2,080 hours per year)
- salary due = hourly rate x hours worked
Hourly Employees (Casuals)
Hourly employees receive compensation only for the hours worked during the pay period.
Payment upon Death
Upon the death of an employee, payment in the name of the deceased's estate is issued for all hours worked and not yet compensated, plus an additional week's salary, and all accumulated vacation or PTO. This is done when the estate's Federal ID is received in the Payroll Office.
J. Payroll Deposits
If an employee completes a payroll deposit authorization, paychecks can be electronically deposited in any bank, savings and loan, or credit union that is a member of the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA). The Payroll Administrator determines whether or not the employee's designated bank is a member. Electronic transfer of payroll deposits through NACHA may not occur if the time/payroll card is received after the due date for that pay period.
K. Payroll Deductions
- TIAA-CREF Deductions (Retirement Plan)
Deductions for TIAA-CREF are made from each paycheck as authorized by the employee and/or required by the UCAR retirement plan. These deductions are treated as a tax-deferred salary reduction, subject to IRS limitations.
Federal income tax is deducted from each paycheck in amounts prescribed by the Internal Revenue Service. If a change in dependent status occurs or if employees wish to change their withholding rates for any other reason, they may do so by notifying the Payroll Administrator and signing a new "Form W-4”. All employees who claim exemption from tax are required to submit a new W-4 by 15 February of each calendar year.
- Social Security and Medicare
Social Security and Medicare tax is deducted from each paycheck at the rate specified by law. UCAR contributes an amount equal to the employee contribution, as required by law. Contributions to TIAA/CREF are subject to Social Security and Medicare tax. In certain cases, a nonresident alien employee may be exempt from Social Security and Medicare tax. All nonresident aliens need to notify the Payroll Office if they have any change in their visa status or if they believe they are exempt.
In states having state income tax, this tax is withheld from paychecks in the amount prescribed by law. Calculation of state income tax is based on the laws of the state in which the employee's home is located. If a change in dependent status occurs or if employees wish to change their state income tax withholding rate for other reasons, they may do so by notifying the Payroll Administrator in writing.
- Miscellaneous Payroll Deductions
Salary deductions may be used to cover United Way and Community Shares of Colorado contributions, voluntary AD&D insurance premiums, repayment of advances, wage garnishments, UCAR cafeteria charges, and personal shipping and long-distance telephone charges. Voluntary deductions must be authorized in writing to the Payroll Administrator.
L. Payroll Adjustments
The Payroll Administrator can explain the calculations of an employee's compensation, deductions, and resulting paycheck. If any error in compensation is identified, corrective action is taken as soon as possible.
(c) Responsibilities
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The Vice-President for Finance and Administration is responsible for the accurate and prompt application of all aspects of this procedure.
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The Director of Human Resources is responsible for approving emergency payroll advances.
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Supervisors are responsible for authorizing the time/payroll cards of hourly and nonexempt employees and for ensuring that all overtime and holiday pay is appropriate. Their authorized submittal affirms the accuracy of the time/payroll cards including the allocation of ‘effort' vs ‘leave'.
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Individuals approving travel are responsible for authorizing an employee's eligibility for field- and shipboard-assignment pay on the "Travel Authorization" form.
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Each employee is responsible for accurately reporting his/her worked and non-worked time via the time/payroll card. The submittal signature that appears on the card attests on behalf of the payee that the time reported is accurate including the allocation between effort and leave reporting. This is true whether the card is submitted by the payee or by another person submitting as the payee's representative in the case of unavoidable absences. Employees are responsible for clearing their overridden timecards prior to the next pay period.
Affiliated Policies and Procedures
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