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Vacation Leave Information
Eligible employees are entitled to paid vacation leave each year. The amount of vacation leave each employee receives is determined by length of state service. Use of vacation leave is governed by System Policy31.03.01 – Vacation.
Eligibility Requirements
- Eligible employees may begin to use vacation accruals after six months of continuous state employment; additionally:
- previous faculty, staff, student, and wage employment with the state will count toward this requirement;
- state employees are required to satisfy the continuous six month requirement only once in his/her employment career with the state;
- employees may begin to use vacation leave on their true continuous six month anniversary.
Example: An employee who begins state employment on January 15 may begin to use his/her available vacation leave on July 15.
- employees who are placed into a leave without pay status for a full calendar month during their initial six months of state employment will not have that month counted for purposes of six months of continuous service.
Example: An employee begins state employment on January 15 and is placed into a leave without pay status from March 9 through May 5. April will not be counted for purposes of vacation leave eligibility; therefore, the employee will have to work an additional month in order to access vacation accruals. The employee would be able to use available vacation leave on August 15.
- Students holding positions for which student status is a requirement for employment are not eligible for vacation leave.
General Information
- A supervisor may deny a request to use vacation leave if granting that leave will place an unreasonable burden on the department or work area.
- Previous employment with independent school districts and junior colleges will not count for purposes of leave accrual rate or vacation leave transfer.
- Employees who are on leave on the first workday of a month may not take vacation leave accrued for that month until the employee returns to duty.
Vacation Leave Upon Termination
- Upon termination or separation from the University, an employee who has completed six months of continuous service is entitled to a lump-sum for all eligible unused vacation time.
- Employees who are in a non-leave-accruing position and are leaving or retiring from the University with a balance of previously earned vacation hours in a leave-eligible position will be compensated for those hours at the rate of pay in the last position held that the accrued vacation hours were earned (Texas Government Code 661.063[b]).
- Employees may request that they remain on the payroll to exhaust any eligible remaining vacation leave after their last day at work; however, the final decision rests with the department regarding the use of additional vacation days to remain on the payroll or the processing of a lump-sum payment.
