Columbia University Human Resources

Work and Time Off

 

Job Responsibilities

The responsibilities of each nonacademic position at the University are provided in a job description or job questionnaire. At the Morningside campus, the Human Resources Organizational Services Department reviews positions to determine the appropriate classification level. At the Medical Center, Harlem Hospital, and Lamont-Doherty, this function is assumed by the local Human Resources Office.

Over time, the responsibilities of a position may change or grow. Some changes warrant an updated job description and a job reevaluation by the appropriate area. Doing more work will not, of itself, dictate a higher grade. The type and complexity of duties, level of responsibility, and additional amount of skill and judgment necessary to do a job are among the factors considered.

If your job is reevaluated and upgraded, you may receive a salary increase. If it is downgraded, your salary will remain the same while you are in the position.

Your supervisor should be able to provide you with a copy of the job description or job questionnaire for your position.

(Employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement should consult that agreement.)

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Hours of Work

The regular workday for most support staff is 9 am to 5 pm, excluding a one-hour period. This schedule results in a normal 35-hour week. Service and maintenance employees and certain other employees have different work hours. Certain offices and departments, because of the nature of their operation, may require different work schedules. Specific schedules and changes should be discussed with your supervisor.

If you are a regular full-time support staff employee in a department providing services beyond the normal work hours, or you work in a department on a 24-hour shift operation, you will receive a 10 percent shift differential if your work schedule begins between 3 pm and 5:59 am the next day.

(Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement should refer to that agreement.)

Officers, part-time employees, and temporary employees are not eligible for a shift differential.

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Overtime Pay

The University must follow criteria established under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to determine whether a position is exempt or non-exempt from the FLSA’s overtime provisions.

If you are an officer, you are considered an exempt employee and are not entitled to overtime pay. However, you may receive a modest meal allowance when you work more than two hours beyond your normally scheduled work hours or if you are asked to work two hours or more on a regular day off. For more information, contact your local Human Resources office.

If you are a support staff member, you will be paid one and one-half times your regular rate for any hours you work over your regularly scheduled full-time work week. Vacation, holidays, and personal days are treated as work days for the purpose of calculating overtime; no other absences, including paid sick leave, are considered work days in overtime calculations. Overtime must be approved in advance by your supervisor. Compensatory time-off in lieu of overtime pay must be taken within the same pay period that the overtime was incurred.

(Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement should refer to that agreement.)

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Holiday Premium Pay

If you are a support staff employee and are required to work on a holiday, you will be paid for the day plus one and one-half times your regular rate for all hours worked on the holiday.

(Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement should refer to that agreement.)

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Paid Holidays­, Vacation and Personal Days

See Benefits in Brief for a complete list of University holidays and a description of vacation time and personal days.

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Absences During External Emergencies

It is expected that regardless of the severity of a snow emergency, blizzard or other inclement weather situations—as well as other outside circumstances such as power failure, transportation breakdown or strikes—the academic and other buildings of the University will continue to be open and serviced. In such cases, all employees are expected to make a reasonable effort to arrive at work. While employees will not be penalized for arriving late, they will not receive pay if they are absent; however, they may charge such absence against earned vacation or floating holidays (personal days). Any exception to this policy will be made by the Vice President for Human Resources.

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Religious Holidays

An employee who wishes to be absent from work for reasons of religious observance may, with approval, charge the absence to earned vacation or a personal day. Otherwise, the approved absence is considered an unpaid leave of absence.

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Bereavement Pay

Regular full-time and part-time employees are granted up to a maximum of three days paid leave in the event of a death in their immediate family (spouse, parent, grandparent, child, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother, sister or member of the household of the employee).

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Jury Duty

A regular full-time employee who is required to be absent for jury duty will receive regular pay for such absence provided that:

  • The employee’s supervisor is shown the jury notice in advance of the jury service.

  • The employee obtains from the clerk of the court a certification of the time spent on jury duty and gives such certification to the supervisor.

If released from jury duty during the course of the day, the employee is expected to report to work.

If an employee receives salary from the University while on jury duty, any payment received by the employee for the jury duty must be immediately remitted to the University.

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Sick Leaves and Other Leaves of Absence

Web: www.hr.columbia.edu/hr/policies/policymanual/timeawayfromwork/index.html

For University Policy on leaves of absence, please visit the HR web site. Officers can also consult Benefits in Brief.

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