Understand

There are two instances where an employee's vacation leave may be accumulated above the maximum 280 hours at their anniversary date:

1. An employee's request for vacation leave is denied by the employer, and the employee is close to the maximum vacation leave (280 hours), the employer must grant an extension for each month that the employer defers the employee's request for vacation leave. The employer must maintain a statement of necessity for justifying the extension.
2. An employee may accumulate the vacation leave hours between the time the 280 hours is accrued and their next anniversary date of state employment. This leave must be used by the next anniversary date and in accordance with the employer's leave policy. If the leave is not used, the excess leave is automatically lost and considered to have never existed.

For example: on June 15th, an employee is assigned to work on a special project. It is expected that the assignment will last 6 months. Due to an ambitious timeline and strict deadlines, the employee will not be able to take any vacation leave during that time.

• On June 15th, the employee's vacation leave balance is 260 hours.
• The employee accrues 10 hours monthly.
• The employee's anniversary date is October 16th.

Because the employee will not be able to use leave from June 15th through December 15th the employee files a statement of necessity asking to defer the leave accrued during this time. This deferred leave will not be lost as long as the employee uses the deferred hours before their next anniversary date (October 16th of the following year). The 20 hours of excess vacation leave the employee had on June 15th are not covered by the statement of necessity because the leave was already accrued.

Statement of Necessity Requirements

The statement of necessity must include the following information at minimum:

1. The date on which the statement of necessity was authorized;
2. Justification of denial of the employee's leave request,
3. Date upon which the employee will be able to resume leave usage;
4. The employee's total leave balance on their anniversary date;
5. The employee's accrual rate; and
6. The employee's leave balance at the time of the request.

Department of Enterprise Services has developed a sample template that includes the above information.

Process

1. The employee will complete a statement of necessity and will notify the HR Business Partner (HRBP) to ensure the correct leave will be deferred.
2. The statement of necessity will be routed to the Agency Director for approval signature.
3. Once signed, the statement will be sent to the HRBP, the employee requesting the deferral, and a copy placed in the personnel file.
4. The HRBP will send to the HRMS team and Payroll for processing.
5. Payroll will notify the requesting employee once the leave has been deferred in the system.