Departments who have previously obtained General Officer approval may give employees compensatory time off in lieu of immediate overtime pay at a rate of one and one-half hours for each hour of overtime worked. The employee must be classified as nonexempt and agree to accept compensatory time in lieu of payment for overtime. Approval for departments to grant compensatory time off in lieu of overtime cash payments is made by the University General Officers (President, Chancellors, Vice Presidents, Hospital Chief Executive Officer) or their designees.
An agreement between the employee and the department concerning the use of compensatory time off is a condition of employment or continued employment. Occasional cash payment of overtime hours does not negate the compensatory time agreement. Earned compensatory time must be recorded in the University’s central payroll system as part of the regular payroll processing schedule. An employee’s official, accrued compensatory hours will be the account balance within that system. Contact Human Resource Services for more detailed guidelines on agreements discussed in this section.
Employees may accumulate up to the FLSA maximum (240 hours) of compensatory time. Compensatory time is granted at a rate of one and one-half hours for each overtime hour worked. Thus, the 240 hour limit represents 160 hours of actual overtime worked. Lower limits may be established for individual operating units but not for individual employees.
Compensatory time must be earned before it is taken, and may be used at the discretion of the employee, subject to supervisory approval. For the purpose of computing overtime, compensatory time taken will not be counted as time worked.
Any balance of unused compensatory time should be paid to the employee before the employee transfers from one department or campus to another. Upon resignation or termination payment for all accumulated compensatory time will be made in one lump-sum payment. Unused compensatory time shall be paid at the employee’s final regular rate.
Exempt staff members are not credited with compensatory time; therefore the balance of unused compensatory time will be paid to the employee before the employee goes into an exempt position.
Date Created: 9/26/97
Last Updated: 7/01/05