EWU Policy 406-01: Exempt Employment (Draft)

3 thoughts on “EWU Policy 406-01: Exempt Employment (Draft)”

1. I disagree with the policy proposal and current practice of taking sick leave from compensable sick leave first. The policy originally presented in October proposed cutting sick leave of exempt employees. This new policy proposal, as written, is maintaining the status quo and doesn’t resolve the lost trust in institutional leaders due to pervious proposal proposal. I believe a revision should be made to give exempt employees autonomy to use their compensable and noncompressible sick leave how they choose. This would be a step by institutional leaders to restore trust with exempt employees.

2. I appreciate the clarification in the proposed amendments to the sick leave policy; however, given that employees who’ve been here for 10-20 years *had no idea* this was the policy (not to mention those with fewer years) and that it was not written into the exempt employee contract for employees who’ve been here for any length of time, I call on EWU to add into this policy a one time compensation for lost sick leave. By this I mean that for employees here prior to Jan 1st, 2025, or even October 1st, 2024 which is about the time any exempt employee (other than those cashing out and finding out by surprise) was ever made aware of the non-compensateable sick time and how it has been used, all non-compensateable sick leave accrued should be transferred to compensateable in a one time action with this new policy being in action after that date. If that is not possible for legal reasons, then a comparable compensation should be made, such as a one time payment of 25% of the non-compensateable sick leave, or vacation leave given for 25% of non-compensateable leave etc. Essentially, I’m asking that because for all intensive purposes employees took their job at EWU and maintained their job at EWU under the idea that all of their sick leave was compensateable, that this should be honored. If this is not honored, I would expect employees to continue to take legal action against EWU for fair compensation.

   In addition, this policy is woefully inadequate in its language with regards to tracking, accountability, and communicating employees regarding this policy and practice. It’s my understanding that HR’s current practice is that they *DO NOT* tracking these types of leave. Instead, when an employee leaves, they do a one time calculation, back tracking all the leave and it’s uses to determine how much is compensateable. Obviously this leaves significant room for error and is a relatively negligent way of tracking leave with almost zero transparency to employees – further increasing liability for EWU and being unfair to employees. This policy should do more than say that HR tracks it. First off, as far as I know they do not, so this would set up a liability issue for EWU for not following its own policy. So don’t say that if it’s not the case. They of course should track this in an accountable and regular way. So I would clarify that policy to read that HR tracks this on a regular basis or something that indicates in a timely and not one time manner. Second, the policy should state clearly that employees are clearly informed of this policy in the onboarding process as well as through their employee dashboard/whichever system is currently used for viewing their benefits and sick leave.

   Finally, employees should be able to choose which type of sick leave is used when they are sick, donating to another employee, etc. At this time, every time non-compensateable has been used first, that was done without the employee’s knowledge or consent, hence my earlier point that a one time compensation should be enacted. In addition, moving forward the policy should allow for employee choice. This would be of minimal cost to the university and would go a long way to ameliorating the fact that the university has mishandled this for so long. It also may alleviate interest in pursuing legal action against the university for mishandling things.

   I do applaud the university for expanding who is covered when it comes to employees needing sick leave for the care of others. I would prefer to see “partner” added in the section of “spouse” and “registered domestic partner” as it is very common for polyamorous/non-monagamous and queer people (in addition to some straight folks) to not use traditional methods of marriage to signify their relationships, especially as these means were not available to most in these communities (and are still not for those wishing to have multiple partners) for so long. I do appreciate that the section that notes people who reside in their house who they would care for leaves things open for some of these situations, but it would be stronger support of people within marginalized communities and relationships to include partner in the initial section.

   As a side note, which may not belong in this policy, it has recently come to my attention that bereavement leave is inequitable based on race, economic status/ability/class, gender, national origin, and geographically. The same amount of time is given to all, but some might live 30 minutes away from family, and others may live half a world away. Further, those of lower incomes may need to use cheaper means to travel which would mean slower means. For these reasons, I believe that the bereavement leave should be rewritten, at a minimum, to include adjustments for travel time based on the location of either the loved one who has passed or their funeral if different, such as up to 4 days or higher for those with longest distances to travel or a need to travel into rural areas of other countries. Further, there are different cultural practices around death, so these also should be accommodated.

   Exempt Employee – who isn’t comfortable sharing their name due to a climate of fear of reprisal for their unit, this fear was established by the ELT and the president for firing and standing by the firing of employees who supported students in speaking up for their rights and dignity

3. This proposed change to the Exempt Policy will increase workload for HR while also reducing confidence and community in the EWU family. I ask you please continue to support Exempt Staff in a single overall compensable sick leave.

   Concern are the following section:
   D. Receipt and Transfer of Sick Leave from Other State
   Agencies. EWU will receive sick leave accrued at another state
   agency up to 240 hours when an employee seeks to transfer to
   EWU and there is no break in service, unless a greater amount
   is approved in advance in writing by the appointing authority.

   CONCERN: Is transferred hours kept separate and not potentially reduced based on Section E below. The Dashboard doesn’t delineate the types.

   E. Cash Out. Sick leave may be cashed out in part upon an
   employee’s retirement or death in accordance with RCW
   41.04.340 and EWU Policy 409-01 (Voluntary Employee
   Benefit Association). Of the 10-12 hours of sick leave accrued
   each month, only 8 of the hours are eligible to be cashed out
   in accordance with RCW 41.04.340 (“compensable leave”).
   The remaining 2-4 hours are considered “noncompensable
   leave” because they cannot be cashed out under RCW
   41.04.340.
   The University maintains records of each employee’s accrued
   compensable and noncompensable sick leave. Sick leave that
   is used under section 4-3(b) or donated to shared leave is first
   taken out of accrued compensable sick leave before any
   noncompensable sick leave is used, except for leave accrued
   as a temporary employee. Sick leave accrued as a temporary
   employee must be used before any sick leave accrued under
   this policy

   CONCERN: Taking away earned sick leave based on an employee contract that this was not spelled out is breach of contract if the contract didn’t indicate a division of sick leave types.

   CONCERN: HR Staff tracking and processing. Asking them to track transferred leave, vs calculate compensable vs non compensable, when it can be paid out….

   CONCERN: with transferred sick leave and earning sick leave, what is used first? Transferred? It is one bucket of sick leave and should not be separated out, unknown to the employee what “type” is drawn upon first, second, or does the reason to take sick leave dictate which “type” it comes from??

   CONCERN: The reference to RCW 41.04.340. It states “an eligible employee or the employee’s estate may elect to receive remuneration at a rate equal to one day’s current monetary compensation of the employee for each four full days of accrued sick leave”. It does not reference the earned rate, only the rate of calculated renumeration. This RCW

   This proposed change to the Exempt Policy will increase workload for HR while also reducing confidence and community in the EWU family. I ask you please continue to support Exempt Staff in a single overall compensable sick leave.