Frequently Asked Questions 1. Spot Awards - Does the money come out of department expenses?   Yes. 2. Dress Code - Capri pants were not on the list, however it was on the email we were sent as not acceptable. Are they ok?   They are not considered business attire or business casual. 3. What happens to vacation time over the limit when a supervisor has denied an employee's vacation due to project at FIU?   Decision to grant vacation leave is at the discretion of the supervisor based on the department's needs. If projects need to be completed the supervisor has the discretion to deny requests for vacation leave. We support work life balance and support supervisor's accommodating leave requests whenever possible. 4. If on a given day, you decide not to take lunch, is there a limit on the hours you can work that day.   Operating hours of the University are 8-5. The decision not to take your lunch break should be discussed with your supervisor as this may create overtime and overtime can only be worked with prior approval of the supervisor. 5. How do we schedule an Exit interview when an employee resigns and leaves FIU?   Have employee contact Employee & Labor Relations Office to schedule an interview by contacting Joann Cuesta - Gomez at ext. 7-3538 or cuestaj@fiu.edu. 6. Is an employee on a compressed work schedule fully covered under Workers' Compensation?   Yes. An employee who becomes injured or develops an occupational disease resulting from conditions on the job is covered under Workers' Compensation. 7. Are compressed work schedules only for non-exempt employees?   No. Compressed work schedules are meant to promote a work/life balance for the employee. Compressed work schedules may be granted in situations where job and business-related needs will continue to be met and approval is obtained ahead of time from the respective supervisor and Human Resources. 8. Is the Tuition Waiver Program available to USPS employees' children and spouses?   USPS employees who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement are not eligible to apply for the Tuition Waiver Program for their children or spouses. However, the University is engaged in negotiations with AFSCME to address these new benefits for all employees who are covered by the agreements. 9. Can an employee enroll as a special student for a certificate program and be covered under the Tuition Waiver Program 6 credit allowance?   Yes if approved by the supervisor, the employee may enroll as a special student and take courses that are specifically related to their job assignments. Excluded are courses in the College of Law, Executive Cohort programs, undergraduate limited access programs, thesis, directed individual study, directed research courses, internships, distance learning, CAPS Professional Development offerings (continuing education courses), or one to one instructional courses are not covered. 10. Are on-line courses covered under the Tuition Waiver Program for employees or dependents?   No, on-line courses are not covered. 11. What about the floating holidays?   The old policy allowed only USPS employees to take one day off each fiscal year as a Special Holiday. The new policy replaces the Special Holiday with two days of Winter Break for all Faculty, A&P and USPS employees. 12. How much service to the university must be completed before the employee can be eligible to use the benefits from the sick leave pool?   Only employees who are members of the Sick Leave Pool are allowed to apply for sick leave pool hours. To become a member of the Sick Leave Pool an employee must have completed six months of employment, and have a minimum of 40 hours of sick and/or vacation leave accrued by full-time employees or 20 hours by part-time employees. 13. Is there a “time” to join the Sick Leave Pool?   See above answer. 14. Can you join the Sick Leave Pool at any time of the year after your 6 months of service?   Employees who do not join the pool when their six months of employment are completed must wait until the Sick Leave Pool has their annual open enrollment period to join the pool. 15. What about the “floating holiday”? Are we still accumulating 1 day per fiscal year?   USPS employees currently receive a “special holiday”. Under the new policies employees will not receive a “special holiday”; in its place we are proposing for all employees to receive two Winter Break Days (new) and 3 days of Bereavement Leave. 16. Who can donate hours to the Catastrophic Leave Pool?   Hours may be donated from one employee to another employee. 17. No pay out for sick leave – is this an incentive to spend down sick leave?   Sick leave is an added benefit that the University gives employees. It is to be used only when the employee or their immediate family members have an illness or an injury (see definition in the Sick Leave policy). We are not encouraging employees to abuse their sick leave; on the contrary, we know how important it is for employees to have accrued accumulated sick leave in case the employee or an immediate family member has a serious illness or injury. 18. Why are employees only grandfathered into the current sick leave payout policy if they have been here 10 years, isn’t an employee considered vested at 6 years and not 10?   The sick leave payout policy has always been 10 years of service and it has no relation to the 6 years of service that an employee who is a member of the Florida Retirement System Pension Plan needs to be vested for retirement. 19. My daughter-in-law is going to be starting FIU Law School in fall 2005. With the new family education benefits, would she be eligible for free tuition?   The Tuition Waiver Program is to be used by eligible employees, employees’ spouse, or the employees’ dependent children under the age of 25. 20. I would like to have the Vacation Leave Policy clarified. It is my understanding as of July 1, 2005 employees who have over 250 hours will not accrue additional annual leave until they have gone below the maximum allowed. Is this correct?   Yes, an employee will not be allowed to accrue vacation leave over the maximum hours allowed. Non-exempt employees are allowed to accrue a maximum of 250 hours; Exempt employees are allowed to accrue a maximum of 352 hours. However, employees who on July 1, 2005 have in unused accrued vacation leave in excess of the amount allowed will not loose the hours that they have accrued, but they will not accrue any more hours until they use their leave and reduce the hours below the maximum amount allowed. At that time, they will start accruing again, up to the maximum allowed. 21. Under the Vacation Leave Policy, is the maximum allowed going to be on a calendar or fiscal year basis?   None, it will be through out the year. Once the employee reaches the maximum amount of hours allowed, the employee will stop accumulating hours until the hours are brought down below the maximum amounts, at that time they will start accumulating again until they reach their maximum. 22. Who is responsible for completing forms for employees related to applications for loans, references, etc.?   The Payroll/Employee Records Department. 23. Are Operational Excellence Awards available this year for USPS? What about for OPS employees?   Since the University is currently engaged in good faith collective bargaining with AFSCME, the Operational Excellence Awards were not available to those employees currently covered by those collective bargaining agreements. OPS employees were not eligible for OEAs. 24. Are OPS employees eligible for the Living Wage?   The Living Wage was implemented for classified positions only. 25. How were Exempt and Non-Exempt designations assigned?   In order to determine whether a position is exempt or non-exempt, each position’s duties is analyzed and put through a salary level test and job duties test as required by FLSA. The Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) provides an exemption (therefore employees are said to be exempt) from the Act’s minimum wage and overtime requirements for any employee working in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity, and for some computer related positions. To qualify for the above mentioned exemptions, an employee must be compensated on a salary basis at a rate of not less than $455 per week ($23,660 annual). Any employee compensated less than $455 per week, ($23,660 annual) is classified as non-exempt. Employees who perform work involving repetitive operations with their hands, requiring physical skill, and knowledge usually acquired through apprenticeship and on the job training, not through a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction are non-exempt. Also non-exempt are non-management employees in production, maintenance, construction. In addition, police officers, technicians, technologists, clerks, and most secretarial positions are non-exempt. 26. What happens to Comp Time for employees who have been building it up for a very long time?   Any employee with accrued compensatory time on record with DHR on the effective date of the policy is excluded from having to use it within the 30 day period. If the employee transfers to a new department, the compensatory time may be paid or transferred at the discretion of both departments. If the employee changes from a non-exempt to an exempt position, all compensatory time accrued will be paid before the change takes place. When an employee terminates, all accrued compensatory time is paid at the regular rate of pay. 27. Who pays for all compensation monetary awards?   The departmental budget. 28. Where does educational incentive award get paid from?   From the OPS account of the departmental budget. 29. If there a deadline for approval of an Educational Incentive Award for an AA/AS degree if you are just taking the required courses? How is that based on the University’s requirements?   The Educational Incentive Award is granted upon approval by the supervisor if the course of study is relevant to the position and/or departmental needs. It would be up to the Department Head to approve the award once the degree is completed. 30. Are exempt employees required to take a meal period?   Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, the University supports lunch breaks for all employees. 31. Does “on call” means that you must be available by phone but do not have to report physically to work?   On call means that the supervisor instructs a non-exempt employee in writing to be available for work outside the regular work schedule, be at a fixed location, and be ready to be back at the work station when needed to perform emergency or other necessary work assignments. 32. What is the hourly living wage?   The hourly living wage is $9.03 per hour. 33. I thought PDP was eliminated?   No- it’s implementation was merely postponed until the 2005-2006 fiscal year. You may be thinking of the announcement that we will no longer be using PerformanceImpact, the software tool we had piloted last year. Based on user feedback, we will instead provide easier-to-use online tools and forms that will facilitate the transition to our new performance tool. 34. Certificates for attendance…..   If you are referring to certificates for attending ODL programs- this is a practice that will continue. If you are referring to having to provide certificates as proof of attending external programs- this is not necessary. Simply use our handy online Professional Development Tracking Form- http://www.fiu.edu/personnel/odl/faq.htm- to submit your external professional development activities. 35. Are the skills that are included in the PDP matched with the courses that ODL offers?   Yes- we organize our Professional Development programs by the same set of Core Competencies used in PDP: Communication Skills, Critical Thinking Skills, Efficiency Management Skills, Leadership Skills, Personal Effectiveness Skills, Teamwork Skills, Service Excellence Skills 36. What if a supervisor is not interested in allowing 20 hours learning goals? If an employee participates in professional development, will they be expected to make up work hours missed?   It is a University-wide policy to allow ALL employees to participate in at least 20 hours of professional development per fiscal year DURING WORK TIME. Supervisors are responsible for planning and budgeting their hours and departmental coverage to make this happen. 37. Does the department keep track of the 20 hours of professional development or do we need to notify HR?   For ODL-sponsored Professional Development programs, we keep track of your hours. For any other internal or external professional development, simply submit our handy online Professional Development Tracking Form http://www.fiu.edu/personnel/odl/faq.htm so that we can keep track of it in our database. 38. Who and how does a conference meet the 20 hours of professional development?   Attendance at professional conferences DOES count as professional development (just the actual session time, NOT conference socials or exhibition hall time). Simply submit our handy online Professional Development Tracking Form- http://www.fiu.edu/personnel/odl/faq.htm so that we can include it in your file in our database. 39. Do 20 hours of professional development apply to Faculty and/or FacultyAdministrators? Does it apply to OPS and to grant-funded positions that are time limited?   The 20 hours of Professional Development is intended primarily for A&P and USPS employees and does not apply to Faculty, OPS or time-limited grant-funded positions. 40. How is participation in a college course counted toward the 20 hours of professional development?   Classes that are directly job-related count for the same number of professional development hours as credit hours, i.e., a 3 credit hour course is worth 3 hours of professional development. 41. What steps can I take if my supervisor does not give me my yearly review?   Under our new Performance Development Process, all supervisors must hold a Development Discussion with each of their employees during the designated time frame. Completion will be monitored by HR, and reports sent to each Vice President. If you do not receive your Performance Discussion during the communicated time, you can contact Human Resources, and/or your Division Vice President. 41. What is the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)? The FLSA is a federal law which establishes minimum wage, child labor provisions, record keeping and overtime provisions. The Act requires that most employees in the United States be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay at one and one-half the regular rate for all hours worked over 40 hours. The regulations identify and exclude certain workers (exempt) from FLSA coverage. 42. Are there exemptions from the minimum wage and overtime provisions? Yes, the FLSA provide an exemption from overtime pay for employees employed as bona fide executive, administrative, professional and certain computer related positions. Employees must be paid at least $455 per week ($23,660) annual in order to qualify for these exemptions. 43. What does it mean to be exempt or non-exempt? Simply put, employees holding non-exempt positions are those that must be paid in accordance with the overtime provisions of the FLSA. Employees in these non-exempt jobs are required to record their time and be paid one and a half times their regular rate of pay as overtime for any hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek. Compensatory time may be earned by non-exempt employees in lieu of overtime pay at the rate of one and one-half time the number of hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a workweek. Non-exempt employees must use accrued compensatory time within thirty days of its accrual, provided that to do so would not unduly disrupt the operations of the University. Exempt positions, on the other hand, are excluded (exempted) from coverage and do not need to be paid overtime. Employees in exempt positions are paid the same amount each workweek regardless of the hours they work. 44. When is overtime due? Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must be paid on the regular pay day for the pay period in which the overtime was worked. All overtime must be authorized by the immediate supervisor prior to working. 45. How is a job determined to be exempt or non-exempt? All positions in the University are analyzed in accordance with the FLSA. Each position’s duties and responsibilities are put through a salary level, salary basis and job duties test under the FLSA. A position must meet all of the requirements under these tests in order for it to be considered exempt from the provisions of the FLSA. 46. If a position has manager or supervisor in the job title, is it exempt or non-exempt? Job titles do not determine exempt status. The FLSA stipulates that the actual duties of the position determine the exempt status of a position regardless of the position title. 47. How often should position descriptions be prepared? Position descriptions should be revised whenever the duties of the positions changed. This is important since the exempt or non-exempt status of any particular employee must be determined on the basis of whether the employee’s salary and duties meet the requirements of the regulations. 48. How should employees record time worked? All hours worked by non-exempt employees must be recorded on the official University time card. 49. When can I use accrued compensatory time? Compensatory time must be used within 30 days of its accrual, provided that to do so would not unduly disrupt the operations of the University. 50. Will I be paid for accrued compensatory time? Yes, all accrued compensatory time is paid when an employee terminates employment. When an employee transfers to a new department, an employee may also be paid for accrued compensatory time prior to the transfer taking effect. 51. What are hours worked? Hours worked are all times which the University requires or permits the employee to be on duty or at a prescribed workplace or on employer’s premises. 52. Does the FLSA requires employers to provide lunch and coffee breaks.? FLSA does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers offer short breaks (usually lasting up to 15 minutes), the break is considered time worked and must be paid. 53. Are meal periods considered hours worked? No, bona fide meal periods of 30 minutes or more are not hours worked and are not compensable. 54. Does the FLSA require payment for holidays, vacation and/or sick leave? The FLSA does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations, holidays and sick leave. These are benefits awarded by the University. 55. What are hours worked when calculating overtime? In calculating overtime, only hours actually worked in a given week will be counted to determine if overtime pay is required. For example, if an employee works on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; Wednesday takes a sick day or a vacation day; and works on Saturday, the total actual work hours is only forty, not forty-eight, and thus not eligible for overtime. 56. Can salary actions be retroactive? No, salary actions are not retroactive. The Division of Human Resources sets the effective date of a salary action once all approvals for salary requests have been obtained. 57. How are salaries set upon promotion? Upon promotion, employees may receive a 5% increase over their current salary. A department may request a promotional increase in excess of the required guaranteed 5% provided that the employee significantly exceeds the minimum requirements of the position to which being promoted. 58. Is my salary reduced if I am demoted? A demotion appointment is usually accompanied by a reduction in pay commensurate with the new position’s level of responsibility. 59. If I’m transfer to a position in my same class or to a position with my same salary range may I receive a salary increase as a result of the transfer? Upon transfer to a position in your same class or a position with the same salary range maximum, you will normally not be granted a salary increase. 60. Can I receive a salary increase if I am assigned additional duties?   An employee may be granted a salary increase for additional duties provided that the increased duties reflect significant increase in the level and nature of the work being performed.

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