FY 2018-2019 Special Annual Leave Bonus – Technical Correction

by | Jan 22, 2019 | HR Council, Leave

On December 27, 2018, the General Assembly ratified Senate Bill 469 (Technical Corrections Bill).  Included in this bill was a revision to the Special Annual Leave Bonus granted for FY 2018-2019.  The revision does not change the offset to sick leave required by the original legislation, but does create a nuance to restore the “Special Annual Leave Bonus FY 18-19” bucket.  The amount of Special Annual Leave Bonus FY 18-19 restored is based on the offset of vacation that did not roll into the sick leave bucket as a result of using the Special Annual Leave Bonus FY 2018-2019.  The original language in the statute {Section 35.26(d)} is listed below:

“SECTION 35.26.(d) Notwithstanding any provision of G.S. 126-8 to the contrary, any vacation leave remaining on December 31 of each year in excess of 30 days shall be reduced by the number of days awarded in this section that were actually used by the employee during the year such that the calculation of vacation leave days that would convert to sick leave shall reflect a deduction of those days of special annual leave awarded in this section that were used by the employee during the year.

The statutory language that was added to the bill is as follows:

“SECTION 35.26.(e) The number of days awarded by this section that carry forward to each following year shall equal the number of days awarded in this section remaining on December 31 of each year plus the number of days awarded in this section that were deducted from vacation leave in excess of 30 days for the calculation of sick leave.

“SECTION 35.26.(f) No employee may be required to take the additional leave awarded by this section.”

Please find attached documents from the Office of State Human Resources, which provides information on the Special Annual Leave Bonus legislative change. In addition to the guidance from OSHR, we are in the process of updating the Regulation on Interpreting the Special Annual Leave Bonus Appropriations Act Provisions (UNC Policy 300.2.9 [R]) to incorporate the parameters of this additional provision to our EHRA employees.

As you might expect, this technical correction is going to necessitate updates to your time keeping systems and additional employee communications. We will discuss further on this week’s HR Council meeting but feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Sent from Brian Usischon