WEATHER ALERT - All Campuses Will Operate Remotely Tuesday, January 27.
Governor Morrisey’s State of Emergency Declaration remains in effect for all 55 counties.
To ensure the safety of our students, faculty, staff, and visitors, all campuses of
Fairmont State University will operate remotely on Tuesday, January 27.
Students – No on-campus in-person classes will be held. Instead, instructors of in-person courses
have prepared to provide their courses through remote means to maintain continuity
of learning. Please consult Blackboard and your professors about the possibility of
virtual instruction or alternate assignments.
Faculty – Please communicate directly with students regarding any shift to virtual instruction
or alternate assignments. (For more information, please see Provost Bedford’s “continuity
of instruction” email sent January 22.)
Staff – Offices will operate remotely. Please consult your supervisor for additional guidance
about remote operations.
Operational updates follow:
The Falcon Center will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The cafeteria will operate on reduced hours: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for brunch and 4 to
6 p.m. for dinner.
The Ruth Ann Musick Library’s 24/7 computer lab, printers and vending machines will
be accessible via student ID.
Student’s ID Card provides building access to all academic buildings from 7 a.m. -
9 p.m.
Student athletes should check with their coaches for further direction.
Some personnel necessary to the operation of the University, including those who work
in the Physical Plant, Dining Services, the Falcon Center, and Public Safety, are
considered essential employees and are expected to report to work. If it is unsafe
to do so, please consult your supervisor.
The Weather Committee continues monitoring the impact of Winter Storm Fern. If additional
updates are necessary, they will be communicated in a timely manner through our emergency
alert system, email, social media, and the University website.
Note that due to this weather system, we anticipate the top deck of the parking garage
will remain closed for the coming days. (This location accounts for a significant
portion of winter slip, trip, and fall injuries on campus. To support the integrity
of the structure, salt or other ice melting agents cannot be used. Structural deterioration
from de-icers can lead to major repairs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.)
The University will alert motorists via large yellow signs posted at the traffic circle,
near Turley Center, and at the top of the hill.
All full-time faculty and staff who are absent from work due to medical reasons for
more than five (5) consecutive days or for surgery are “required” to provide to the
HR/Benefits Office written medical verification and a release for work from a licensed
physician (or other licensed medical provider who treated the employee). This requirement
includes employees using sick leave.
Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
Employees are entitled under the FMLA to 12 weeks of unpaid (paid if using sick/annual
leave) job protected leave in a 12-month period (employee must have worked 1250 hours
and at least 12 months for FSU or Pierpont) for the following reasons:
For a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the employee's
job
Incapacity due to pregnancy, prenatal medical care or childbirth;
To care for the employee’s child after birth or placement for adoption or foster care;
To care for the employee’s spouse, son or daughter or parent with a serious health
condition;
Military Qualifying Exigency leave or Military Caregiver Leave (see below)
REQUIRED MEDICAL DOCUMENTATION
The leave requires a “written statement” from a licensed health care provider that
includes: Information regarding the medical condition, diagnosis, prognosis, functional
limitations, including duration and treatment plan, and return to work date.
Employees not eligible for FMLA may request a leave of absence for the length of time
designated by the health care provider (maximum is 12 months in any 12-month period).
Military Exigency Leave
FMLA may be used for eligible employees whose spouse, son, daughter, or parent is
on covered active duty or called to active duty. The employee is entitled to a 12-week
leave to address certain qualifying exigencies.
Military Caregiver Leave
FMLA permits eligible employees to take up to 26 workweeks of leave in a 12-month
period to care for a covered service family member who is undergoing medical treatment,
etc. Employees may take no more than 26 weeks off in a single 12-month period for
all FMLA qualified reasons, combined.
Parental Leave
A full-time employee who has worked at least 12 consecutive weeks for the state may
request up to 12 weeks unpaid parental leave. The request may be due to birth or adoption
by the employee or because of a planned medical treatment or care for the employee’s
spouse, son, daughter parent or dependent with a serious health condition. Employee
must exhaust all annual leave and pay both the employee and employer cost of health
insurance. No more than 12 weeks of parental leave may be taken in any 12 consecutive
month period.
Sun Life Short Term Disability and Standard Long Term Disability
Requires the employee to contact Benefits Office (333-3669) for information and claim
application forms.
Catastrophic Leave with Pay
Classified, non-classified and 12-month faculty experiences a catastrophic illness
or injury as defined by WV Code and FSU/Pierpont may request approval to receive paid
leave time donated by other employees within the institution. Employee must exhaust
all annual and sick leave. Employee will be changed to “hourly” payroll status upon
approval of catastrophic leave. Max: 12 months in any 12-month period or until donations
are exhausted. Catastrophic leave counts toward FMLA.
Military Leave with Pay
Employee who is a member of National Guard or Reserves is entitled to 30 days paid
leave in any one calendar year. Leave requires order or statement in writing from
appropriate military officer.
Workers’ Compensation
Employee is required to complete the Election of Option form. The leave will be counted
toward FMLA. Employee will continue to pay the employee share of health premium.
Personal Leave without Pay
Employee must send a request to Benefits Office. Approval may be subject to written
approval of the employee’s supervisor. If approved, employee may be granted a continuous
leave of absence without pay not to exceed 12 consecutive months. The employee must
exhaust all annual leave and pay both the employee and the employer cost of health
insurance.
This is a brief summary of various types of leave of absence options. Questions regarding
these leaves or eligibility issues relating to these leaves should be directed to
the Human Resources, Benefits Office, 304-333-3669.
On Tuesday, April 23, 2024 the Department of Labor announced changes to the definition
of what compensation amount qualifies to be salaried. You can find the Department
of Labor announcement here. The University has been monitoring this potential development
for several months and continues to track the final results of this process, as there
is still the potential for legal challenges to this final ruling for January 2025.
These changes will not affect our faculty per the definitions created by this rule.
University administration and the Office of Human Resources will continue working
toward best defining how this will affect our Campus Community. As the University
continues managing these changes, information and updates can be found here on the
Human Resources website. A list of federal FAQs regarding the rule can be found on
the DOL website.
Wage & Hour Division Fact Sheets
Fact Sheet #17D — Exemption for Professional Employees Under the FLSA
Fact Sheet #17S — Higher Education Institutions and Overtime Pay Under the FLSA
If the question is about the time-stamping process, you should email it to payroll@fairmontstate.edu. If the question is about your job duties or FLSA designation, send an email to hr@fairmontstate.edu.
You will be notified by the Office of Human Resources. The rule does not apply to
faculty. In 2016 a similar rule was issued but was halted by an injunction, which
may occur again this year. If the courts halt it, Fairmont State University will reassess
its approach to these changes and update the campus community.
The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping,
and youth employment standards. The University’s compensation policies and processes
comply with the FLSA.
Non-exempt employees are covered by the overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the
FLSA and are entitled to overtime pay if work exceeds 40 hours in one workweek. Overtime
is paid at a premium of time and one-half of the employee’s regular hourly rate and
compensated either in pay or in accrual of compensatory time.
Exempt employees are not covered by the overtime provisions of the FLSA and are paid
an agreed-upon amount for the whole job, regardless of the amount of time or effort
required to complete the work. Exempt employees receive a set monthly salary regardless
of the number of hours worked. Exempt employees do not record hours of work.
On 7/1/24 the threshold increased to $43,888. It is scheduled to increase again on
1/1/25 to $58,656, and then every three years.
Employees affected by these FLSA changes who make under the threshold will be converted
to non-exempt.
The only thing that we are asking that you micromanage is the overtime. Please try
to keep everything else the way that it has been in the past. We are going to have
to get creative in our approach to these FLSA changes.
Flex time is when an employee works additional hours in one workday and is allowed
to take time off on another workday (in the same work week) without recording overtime
hours. This is a way of adjusting an employee’s hours per day to prevent the employee
from exceeding 37.5 hours in any single work week. This might also be referred to
as “rearrange time”; meaning that an employee may rearrange their work schedule to
meet department demands while staying under 37.5 hours.
Flex-time can be used to manage fluctuations in the weekly 37.5-hour employee schedule.
Compensatory/overtime must be scheduled and approved in advance. My suggestion is
to consider making scheduling adjustments. Maybe consider rotating staff members to
include a person to stay “30” minutes late every day. Maybe consider making the last
appointment at 4:00 pm. Think outside the box on how to make it work.
Compensatory time is the process of crediting an employee for personal hours in lieu
of monetary overtime compensation. Compensatory time, unlike flex time, can be used
at any point in the future. Compensatory time must be credited at straight time or
time and a half for each overtime hour worked.
Yes, comp time is an option in lieu of overtime. Comp time can be tracked in UKG.
Fairmont State University employees can accumulate a maximum of 240 hours of compensatory
time (480 for police officers). Compensatory time expires after 1 year from the date
earned if it’s not used.
No, this is because Payroll has to change your pay code in UKG.
If there is no overtime budget, you won’t be able to offer payment. Compensatory time
might be your only option.
Yes. You will enter your time in UKG.
Yes. You will need to clock in and out for lunch using UKG.
Remember, you have to pay employees for working. Taking 15 or 30 minutes to email
appointment cancellations will need to be coded as “regular” pay. The remainder of
the day will be paid “sick” time. The employee will not be paid more than 7.5 hours
for the day and therefore compensatory time is not an issue. Again, we need to start
thinking of a solution on how to manage the unexpected. Can we assign a buddy/backup
system to make the cancellation calls?
Service on committees across campus should be approved by the department Director.
The supervisor should evaluate if these committees interfere with the employee's ability
to get their work done. If the supervisor approves the committee work, the hours served
on the committee will be included in the 37.5-hour work week.
Holiday time off, annual & sick leave are not included in the computation of overtime.
Overtime/Compensatory Time starts after an employee has actually worked 37.5 hours
in the work week.
You will need to develop an equitable process to handle comp and overtime. However,
it doesn’t have to be distributed equally and it can be voluntary.
Correct. You will need to create some ground rules because this can be a very slippery
slope. Since I know that there are certain times of the year that working over will
be necessary and expected, should I create an expected overtime budget based on the
number of hours I would anticipate in overtime in consideration of each staff member’s
pay rate?
The budget for FY 25 is already approved and complete. Your only option may be to
award compensatory time off.
Hourly employees are not permitted to work as adjunct employees.
Departmental leadership will need to manage attendance of University events. Employees
don’t have to be compensated to attend voluntary events and the needs of the department
should be primary. Events that are related to the employees’ job duties should be
considered release time.
No. Only actual hours worked are included in the computation of overtime.
First time, tell them to do better and remind them it must be approved in advance.
Make sure the employee is still compensated. Second offense, start documentation/Disciplinary
process.
Yes, A full-time Fairmont State University employee may be allowed time off during
scheduled work hours to attend class, provided the employee’s absence will not interfere
with their work unit’s operation. Each unit head has the responsibility to approve
or reject requests. This policy applies to both exempt and non-exempt employees. There
is no basic employee right to attend class during work time and the needs of the unit
must take precedence. Employees wishing to take courses at Fairmont State are expected
to do so outside of work hours. If it is impossible for an employee to obtain a desired
course outside of work hours, the head of the unit may authorize absence from work
to attend no more than two classes (maximum of six clock hours per week) if the work
can be covered in some other manner. When an employee enrolls in courses requiring
greater than six clock hours during the work week, these additional hours must be
either charged to the employee’s annual leave or made up preferably during the same
work week they are used, or a combination of both. Each supervisor has the authority
to determine other conditions under which requests for class attendance will be approved
and has the responsibility to apply these conditions consistently within their work
unit, keeping in mind that the needs of the work unit must take precedence over class
attendance.
Yes. It is recommended that you speak with HR for guidance.
Annual/Sick leave is not included in the computation of overtime. If someone takes
a vacation day (7.5 hours) on Monday and then works Tuesday – Friday, they will be
paid a total of 37.5 hours for the week. (30 hours worked and 7.5 hours vacation).
If the employee is then asked to work 4 hours on Saturday, the breakdown could happen
a couple of ways. a. (7.5 vacation, 30 worked, 4 hours straight comp time) b. (7.5
vacation, 30 worked, 4 hours paid at the straight rate).
The work week begins on Saturday and ends on Friday.
Yes, employees must obtain approval from their supervisor before working any overtime.
This includes all hours over 37.5 in the work week.
No, the Fair Labor Standards Act clearly defines a work week as a regularly reoccurring
period of seven consecutive workdays. Any hour over 37.5 that occurs in the work week
must be paid (via overtime pay or compensatory time) within that same week.
Overtime is calculated on actual hours worked, not hours paid. Vacation, Sick Leave,
and Holidays count as hours paid not actual hours worked, so this would be why one
would not receive overtime in a week in which your paid hours exceeded 37.5, but your
actual worked hours did not.
Due to federal guidelines, an employee may not “opt-out” of receiving overtime compensation.
Yes, if the employee performs work for the University we are required to compensate
the employee regardless of the source of funding.
Management has the right to exercise control of when work is to be performed. Management
must enforce rules to control overtime. If employees work overtime after they have
been told they are prohibited from doing so, disciplinary steps must be followed to
ensure that the violation will not occur. Whether overtime has been approved or prohibited,
the employee must be compensated once overtime has been worked.
Your hourly rate of pay can be calculated by dividing your annual salary by 1950 hours.
Salary is not the only factor that determines exempt status. HR would have to conduct
a “duties test” to see if your job meets the FLSA “white collar” guidelines. We will
also need to make sure that your job falls in line with internal factors that we have
established.
The Department of Labor Regulations state that an employee must be paid at 1 ½ times
their regular hourly rate for any overtime that occurs after an employee has reached
240 hours of compensatory time.
All non-exempt employees must be compensated for all hours worked in their regular
job.
