Proposed Plan for 2017-18 Winter Holiday Closure

Dear Colleagues:

UCLA plans to observe a Winter Holiday Closure during the 2017-2018 holiday season. This annual closure is a highly effective approach to power conservation for a specific period of time and has allowed UCLA to achieve significant energy savings.

It is proposed that the campus close for 10 days between Saturday, December 23, 2017, and Monday, January 1, 2018, with plans to reopen on Tuesday, January 2, 2018. This period includes four University paid holidays (December 25, 26, 29, 2017, and January 1, 2018). This year, only two days (December 27 and 28, 2017) are not paid holidays.

Staff employees and those academic employees who accrue vacation leave will need to use either vacation, compensatory time (if available), or leave without pay to compensate for these two work days.

For exclusively represented employees, labor contracts may include similar provisions, and requirements under the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act will be observed.

In accordance with University personnel policies and applicable labor agreements, employees will have the choice of the following options to cover the non-paid holidays during the closure period:

• Eligible employees may utilize vacation days in advance of their actual accrual.
• Newly hired employees, represented and policy-covered, may utilize their vacation accruals during the closure before acquiring six continuous months on pay status.
• Employees with accrued compensatory time may elect to use it to cover the two days off or to offset the use of vacation time.
• Employees who do not wish to use vacation or compensatory time off may request leave without pay for the two working days based on departmental approval. In this case, employees will not lose hourly vacation or sick leave accruals for these two days.

The above options may be used in combination. Employees should notify their respective supervisors in advance as to which option or combination of options they propose to use.

During the planned break period, the UCLA Health Sciences and certain essential-service facilities will continue to remain open. Deans, Vice Chancellors and Organization Heads to whom this responsibility has been delegated will need to determine if any facilities under their management will need to remain fully or partially open during the closure and, accordingly, arrange for appropriate staffing. Please send copies of these approval decisions to the following offices: Assistant Vice Chancellor - Facilities Management; Campus Human Resources - Employee & Labor Relations; and Health Sciences Human Resources - Employee & Labor Relations.

To help ensure UCLA employees who do not have regular access to a computer have an opportunity to provide their feedback, please distribute this memo widely in your organization or department. Comments or questions regarding application of personnel policies or collective bargaining agreements during the closure may be sent to Anthony Solana in Campus Human Resources at asolana@chr.ucla.edu or to Maure Gardner in Health Sciences Human Resources at mgardner@mednet.ucla.edu by Friday, September 15, 2017.

Sincerely,