UNC Health Care’s policy regarding the earning or accrual of Paid Holiday Leave remains unchanged. However, Human Resources has received several questions regarding holiday pay and wanted to clarify a few issues. Please review this document and submit any follow-up questions to Glad You Asked.
View this information as a PDF.
Holiday Leave
Full-time eligible employees earn the equivalent of 12 days (or 96 hours) of paid holiday leave each year.
For those employees in the Traditional Leave plan, those days/hours accrue on or around the actual calendar date(s) of holidays and can be used anytime within the pay period or thereafter.
For those employees in the Paid Time Off (PTO) plan, those hours accrue equally throughout the year, as a part of all PTO hours, and can be used at any time.
Date-specific Holidays
The following Holidays occur on the same day each year:
- New Years Day (Jan. 1)
- Independence Day (July 4)
- Christmas (Dec. 25)
Date-variable Holidays
Other Holidays are date-variable, including:
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Day (the third Monday in January)
- Memorial Day (the last Monday in May)
- Labor Day (the first Monday in September)
- Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November)
Dependent Holidays
Some other UNC Health Care Holidays are dependent in nature. These include:
- Post Thanksgiving Holiday (day after Thanksgiving)
- Two Winter Holidays (Pre-Christmas and Post-Christmas)
Premium Holidays
The majority of UNC Health Care’s operations never close. Since many of our employees must work on days when the general public and other businesses are celebrating a holiday with family and friends, we pay a premium for time worked on seven of our 12 acknowledged holidays. Premium holidays include:
- New Years Day
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
When an hourly/non-exempt employee is required to work on a premium holiday, he/she will be paid premium pay for those hours, and is entitled to an alternative day off to utilize their earned holiday.
Holidays with closure of Clinics/Administrative Units
Because some of our business units do not provide or directly support patient care (Human Resources, Purchasing, or Administration, for example), or may not be expected by our patients and public to be open for business on holidays (Outpatient Clinics, for example), they may be closed on some holidays.
Also, units that support clinical care often reduce staffing on holidays when they can do so without jeopardizing service or patient care (much as they might do on weekends).
To provide guidance for work unit closure or minimal staffing decisions, the following nine holidays typically result in closure or minimal staffing:
- New Years Day
- Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Post Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
- Winter Holiday (Pre OR post-Christmas as designated each year)
When any of these holidays falls on a Saturday, the preceding Friday would be a day of closure or minimal staffing.
When any of these holidays falls on a Sunday (as both Christmas and New Years Day do in 2011), the following Monday is a day of closure or minimal staffing.
Floating Holidays
The remaining three holidays are considered “floating” holidays since they will not be days of closure, but may be days of minimal staffing:
- Spring Holiday (Good Friday)
- Veterans Day
- Winter Holiday (Pre OR post-Christmas as designated each year)
Scheduling Holiday time off
Each employee should work with his/her manager to schedule time off on a holiday or an alternate day off, as mutually agreeable and possible within the staffing needs of the business unit.
Similarly, all employees should work with their supervisor to assure they can enjoy all of their accrued paid time off.
Future Holiday schedules
Holiday Schedules for 2011, 2012 and 2013 are available at the following links: