Attention UM Members: Vacation and Banked Time Use/Carryover
As the end of 2017 is approaching and members of our union may be hearing from their departments in the near future about the use and potential carryover of banked time and vacation, we wanted to ensure our membership know their rights according to their collective agreement.
At the University of Manitoba, article 15.3 of the collective agreement speaks to vacation time:
- Subject to written approval of the department, up to ten working days of vacation may be taken in advance, provided it has been earned.
- Up to ten working days of vacation may be carried over from the normal vacation year to the next vacation year. No approval is required.
- Subject to the above, vacation entitlement which has not been used or scheduled for use by December 1st in the current vacation year will be scheduled by the Employer to ensure that all vacation entitlement is used by the end of the vacation year (March 31). The employer will provide at least fifteen calendar days notice of the start of an employee’s scheduled vacation. Prior to scheduling such vacation, the Employer shall give seven calendar days’ notice to the employee to allow the employee to make a final request for his/her holidays of preference.
In other words, an employee may carry over up to 10 unused vacation days from the 2017-18 fiscal year to the 2018-19 fiscal year. However, the employee must let the department know that they wish to carry over vacation days. For any unused vacation days that will not be carried over, the employee must schedule the use of those vacation days and let their department know of their plans to use it up. Otherwise, the department can schedule the use of the vacation days on the employee’s behalf, with appropriate notice.
At the University of Manitoba, articles 12.7 and 12.7.1 of the collective agreement speak to the banking of authorized overtime:
- The time off will be taken at a time requested by the employee unless in the opinion of management the time requested would be disruptive to the operation of the department. All accumulated hours worked over 40 will be paid as overtime unless the Dean/Director agrees in writing to allow the employee to accumulate more than 40 hours.
- Any accumulated hours not received as time off by the fiscal year end shall be paid, or the Department Head and employee may mutually agree to have unused accumulated overtime taken off in the following fiscal year.
In other words, it is up to an employee to decide when they want to use their banked time during the year. If they do not use up their banked hours by March 31, they will be paid out for them unless the employee, with permission of their department head, chooses to carry over their amount of banked hours into the 2018-19 fiscal year. It is important to note that the decision to use banked time is at the request of the employee. Your department cannot require you to use banked time (to reduce your bank) before using vacation time, or vice versa.
If you find yourself in a situation where the above policies are not being adhered to, please do not hesitate to contact the AESES office for assistance. We can be reached via email at aeses@aeses.ca or by phone at 204-949-5200.