This message is intended for all UCR employees, including but not limited to faculty, staff (non-represented and represented), undergraduate student employees, graduate teaching assistants, and graduate research assistants.
The University remains open and operational, albeit with some adjustments to normal activities.
Effective immediately and pending approval from your supervisor, employees may have the option to work remotely.
No campus office, unit, or department can be closed (i.e., no employees physically working on campus), without prior approval from the cognizant Vice Chancellor or Provost/EVC.
Please read this entire email carefully and consult with your supervisor, before making any changes to your individual work situation or within your office, unit, or department.
We continue to closely monitor the ongoing Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The health and well-being of our community remains our number one priority. We encourage all managers and supervisors to think creatively about how to support their employees in caring for their health — and reducing their risk of exposure to COVID-19 — while still enabling them to continue to perform the important work they do. Therefore, UC is enacting the following temporary emergency provisions:
UC SYSTEM-WIDE PROVISIONS
1. Employees unable to work due to their own or a family member's COVID-19 illness should use available leave balances (e.g. sick leave, PTO-sick, or other accrued leave), and if there are no available leave balances, the University will provide up to 14 days paid administrative leave to cover the absence.
2. Employees unable to come to work due to public health or University-required quarantine or self-isolation measures may work remotely if operationally feasible. If remote work is not operationally feasible, employees should use available leave balances, and if there are no available leave balances, the University will provide up to 14 days paid administrative leave to cover the absence.
3. Employees unable to come to work due to a COVID-19 day care or school closure that requires them to be home with their child may work remotely if operationally feasible; if remote work is not operationally feasible, employees may use available leave balances including sick leave.
4. If remote work is considered to be operationally feasible, the employee will be considered to be on paid work status. Employees in positions who are directed not to come to work by the University and are unable to work from home due to the nature of their work (as determined by the location), may be allowed up to 14 days of paid administrative leave. Locations may determine which positions to designate, provided that all health care workers are considered exempt from this category of designation.
5. Benefits – Generally, an employee granted a leave with pay will continue to receive all benefits related to employment. Special limitations or requirements that apply to certain types of leaves are addressed in the provisions specific to those leaves in PPSM 2.210.III.A.6.
UC RIVERSIDE GUIDANCE
The following guidance is provided to assist you with using the UC Provisions noted above. We recognize that we are operating in a fast moving and fluid environment, but we wanted to get out some key information to everyone as soon as possible. We expect we will have to augment this information in the near future:
1. The UCR campus is remaining open at this time. However, as staff participate in telecommuting and/or use some or all of the 14 day paid administrative leave provision, departments/units may be only partially staffed at their physical location (and may find some reasonable rotation of staff workable). If for some reason a department needs to physically close completely, the department/unit head should seek prior approval from the cognizant Vice Chancellor or Provost/EVC (and from the appropriate Dean for the schools and colleges).
2. Consult your supervisor if you would like to pursue telecommuting or request to use the up to 14 days paid administrative leave option if you are eligible. This administrative leave is a single allocation of up to 14 work days at the current FTE level, but these days do not need to be consecutive. The allocation of these 14 days is based on the employee being directed not to come to work AND the University/Supervisor determination that they are unable to work from home due to the nature of their work. This determination will need to be documented in writing. If these criteria are met, the allocation of the 14 days will be granted. Note that all health care workers are exempt from this category of designation.
3. To assess whether remote work is operationally feasible, refer to the Assessing the Feasibility of Remote Work during the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak Guidelines.
4. To indicate you are using some of the 14 day paid administrative leave in the UCR Time & Attendance Reporting System (TARS), select “other leave” and choose the Administrative – Paid (PA) Leave type.
5. For all staff, TAs and Graduate Research Assistants, the same policy considerations will apply, including the option for up to 14 days of paid administrative leave (if they qualify). Graduate Research Assistants should consult with their supervisor/PI on their eligibility for paid administrative leave, as we expect there will be on-campus research work for them as campus research work will not be restricted. TAs should consult with their supervisor particularly how they can fulfill their role when courses are not being taught in person. UCR will provide more details for TAs prior to the start of Spring quarter. We understand that some TAs and Graduate Assistants may have more than one supervisor, for separate appointments, and therefore they will need to check with each appropriate supervisor.
6. For employees who are undergraduate students the same policy considerations apply, including the option of up to 14 work days of paid administrative leave (which do not need to be consecutive), if they qualify. Some undergraduate student employees may have their duties impacted by the campus actions relative to in person class meetings, and UCR will work to provide additional guidance for these individuals prior to the start of Spring quarter.
We recognize that the COVID-19 outbreak and our decisions in response to the outbreak affect our entire community, including the staff, students and faculty who work and study here. Please accept our thanks for your continued cooperation, patience, and understanding while we adjust and provide guidance to this fluid and unprecedented situation.
Please anticipate additional email communications and guidance in response to the outbreak. In addition, the UCR COVID-19 Outbreak website will continually be updated. We will have additional communications to supervisors and staff, specifically prior to the start of the Spring quarter.
Represented Staff should contact Labor Relations at Labor.Relations@ucr.edu with any questions or concerns.
Staff not covered by a collective bargaining unit should contact Human Resources at HRPolicy@ucr.edu with any questions or concerns.
Graduate student employees should contact graddiv@ucr.edu with any questions or concerns.
Thank you again.