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October 12,1999
Number 1885
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
AT
CHAPEL HILL
Office of Human Resources
Administration Department
(919) 962-3897 FAX (919) 962-1065		 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
CB# 1040, 720 Airport Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1040

 

MEMORANDUM



 
 
 
TO:  Deans, Directors, Department Heads
FROM:  Laurie Charest, Associate Vice Chancellor
Office of Human Resources
DATE:  October 5, 1999
RE:  Volunteering for Disaster Relief Efforts

 

Guidelines for Volunteering for Disaster Relief in Eastern N.C.

The following are special directions from Governor Hunt regarding hurricane disaster relief efforts. Provisions relating specifically to those counties hardest hit by Floyd do not apply to us here in Orange County and have not been reprinted. However, the provisions relating to how we can assist in the disaster relief effort do apply and are reprinted below. All University employees are encouraged to explore appropriate opportunities to assist disaster-stricken areas of N. C.

Both SPA and EPA UNC-CH employees may request time away from work to volunteer for disaster relief activities in eastern N. C. However, in granting such requests University management must consider the impact of employee absences on service delivery to students, clients, patients and citizens as well as the effect on work operations.

OPTIONS FOR VOLUNTEERING

Management may temporarily reassign employees to a different location to perform disaster relief-related work as an extension of the employees' regularly recurring duties and responsibilities. The employee must agree to these reassignments.

All reassignments must be documented as to date, time, location and duration of the temporary assignment. Each department is responsible for collecting and maintaining information on reassignments made for disaster relief purposes. The following information shall be collected and maintained for each employee reassignment: employee name; social security number-, geographic location of temporary assignment; and number of hours subject to reassignment.

Employees may request time away from work for volunteering in a disaster relief or recovery activity. To do so, the employee must secure approval from the immediate supervisor. Management has the discretion to grant up to 16 hours of paid time away from work (including travel time to and from the area of disaster relief) during the employee's regularly scheduled worktime for volunteer activities in support of disaster relief or recovery activities prompted by Hurricane Floyd.

This will be paid time but will not be charged to an employee's leave account. The time away from work will not be made up. This time does not transfer to any other leave balance nor may it be transferred to other employees.

For FLSA non-exempt employees, all time worked (including disaster relief efforts, and travel time to and from the area of disaster relief) in excess of 40 hours in a work week must be compensated as overtime.

UNC-CH expects management to be consistent and equitable in their application of these provisions. Approval for volunteering during work hours must take into account any adverse impact on the University's operations and delivery of services in support of the University's mission.

Employees may volunteer for disaster relief activities on behalf of public and private non-partisan, non profit community organizations under the provisions outlined in the community involvement leave policy outlined in Section XI, Volunteer UNC-CH HR SPA Manual. UNC-CH management shall have discretion to approve all requests for community involvement leave for this purpose. If the request is approved, the employee shall be granted reasonable time away from work with the understanding that the employee must make up the lost worktime. Employees may not work overtime to make up time taken in this fashion.