Wherever you are in your professional career at SUNY, it is important for you to keep track of the accruals you have earned. The old saying that “time is money” applies when it comes to your accruals.

Professional members of UUP earn vacation and sick accruals at a rate based on years of service, up to seven years. After seven years, you earn 1.75 days per month for vacation and 1.75 days per month for sick leave. Holiday compensatory time is earned after you actually work the holiday. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, you earn 1.5 days of comp time. For all other holidays, you earn one day of comp time. You must work the holiday to earn the comp time. Refer to Article 23–Leaves in the 2007-2011 Agreement Between the State of New York and United University Professions to see the rates at which you earn these accruals.

Compensatory time for those who are non-exempt (overtime eligible) under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is earned at 1.5 times your normal rate after you have worked 40 hours in a work week. This type of compensatory time (overtime) is accrued up to 240 hours.

Compensatory time for those who are exempt (not overtime eligible) can earn it for services exceeding their normal professional obligation. It is not hour for hour. What you earn for the extra work should be discussed with your immediate supervisor before doing the work. This type of comp time can be found in Appendix A-29 of the Agreement.

If you have questions about which category you fall under, you should contact your UUP chapter for help.

As you accrue time, it is important to understand how you can get the most out of the days you have earned without losing any earned accruals.

VACATION TIME

Vacation can be accrued to more than 40 days in a year. However, if you have more than 40 days on Dec. 31 of any given year, you will lose all but 40 days effective Jan. 1. Therefore, it is important to keep your vacation accruals at 40 days or fewer by the end of each calendar year. When you decide to leave SUNY, you will be paid for the unused expenditure at the rate you are earning at that time, up to a maximum of 30 days of vacation accruals. Simply put: If you have 40 days in your vacation bank and leave state service, you will lose 10 days of pay.

SICK LEAVE

Your sick day accruals can be earned up to a maximum of 200 days. This can be a great benefit when you retire because those days will be converted to a dollar amount based on your salary when you retire. You must retire after the age of 55 to get this benefit. The days turn into dollars that will be used to pay for your portion of your health insurance premium. That can be a significant savings in retirement. If you retire before age 55, you will lose this benefit and, with it, all of the sick days you accrued.

HOLIDAY COMP TIME

Holiday comp time must be used within one year of accrual or is lost. When you separate from SUNY service, you will lose all of your earned but unused holiday comp time. So, if you have five holiday days accrued and leave, you will lose the five holiday days.

COMP TIME

Comp time can be trickier, based on your exempt or non-exempt status. For those who are exempt, I recommend you arrange for the use of the comp time you earn as soon as you can after earning it. No matter how much comp time you have earned under this category, SUNY has no obligation to compensate you for any of it when you leave state service.

If you are non-exempt and have accrued compensatory time in your overtime bank, you will receive pay for every hour of it based on your salary when you leave. For example, if you have an annual salary of $50,000 and 240 hours in your overtime comp time bank, you can walk away with close to $6,000.

The different types of accruals you earn have short-term and long-term values throughout your career and when you decide to leave SUNY. So, make sure you use your accruals wisely to maximize your benefits. Remember, “time is money.”

Feel free to call me at (800) 342-4206 or e-mail me at jmarino@uupmail.org.