Having been at an institution where a termination was utilized, please note that a pool is still not always sufficient, particularly when there is an economic downturn and layoffs occur.  So a policy for department responsibility for any cost overrun and allocation is still prudent. We had one department that released staff on a more frequent basis than others and wanted more than their "share" in distribution.  Never a perfect solution is there.

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 21, 2012, at 10:29 AM, "Terri Fayle" <xxxxxx@K-STATE.EDU<mailto:xxxxxx@K-STATE.EDU>> wrote:

Like Rene, my prior institution did not resolve this issue.  The institutional policy in place required the department to be liable for the payout of accrued leave for departing employees.  Even if an employee had been on campus for several years and in several departments, their last department was the one who footed the bill.  If you have a grant funded project that has been incrementally funded over many years, then the final grant project potentially ended up with the bill.  When you can’t charge the final bill to the grant project, then the department had to come up with the funds.  This meant that all the prior year grants were not paying their full burden for the project, and the university had to pick up the bill for that!  Couple this with departments not receiving any indirect cost recovery back to them, you ended up with a huge lack of ‘interest’ in sponsored activity.

The OSP office tried to convince the administration that including the vacation payout in the fringe benefit chargeback rate was appropriate, and preferred.  Thereby creating a pool at the institutional level that could be used to pay accrued leave for all types of employees (departmental and grant funded).  This approach wasn’t acceptable because of old institutional feelings about pooled funds.  But it appeared to be the only way to have projects that occur over a long period of time pay its coinciding expenses.

Terri

From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org] On Behalf Of Hearns, Rene
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 10:23 AM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org<mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org>
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Annual leave pay out at end of grant

Spanky,

I believe the question is related to how one handles their benefits.  This is because the benefits accrue on one grant but may be used against a subsequent one. Also upon severance they may be entitled to many weeks payout but again it would not be benefiting the current project to apply this change against it.  This was a problem at my last four institutions and was really never solved.

Cheers,
Rene

From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org] On Behalf Of Mike McCallister
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 11:10 AM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org<mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org>
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Annual leave pay out at end of grant

Why would you need policies if the Feds require that we treat grant funded folks exactly like regular employees?  What you do for one, you do for the other

Spanky

From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org] On Behalf Of Myra Norman
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 9:45 AM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org<mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org>
Subject: [RESADM-L] Annual leave pay out at end of grant

I am looking for policies relating to annual leave for employees that are paid 100% from grant funding.  Do you follow your university policies.  Do you put limits on annual leave for grant-funded employees?  How do you handle pay out of annual leave not taken at the end of a grant?

Myra Norman, PhD
Director, Research Services
Middle Tennessee State University
P.O. Box 124
Murfreesboro, TN  37132
Tel:  (615) 898-5010
Fax: (615) 494-7846
e-mail:  xxxxxx@mtsu.edu<mailto:xxxxxx@mtsu.edu>

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======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the
 "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)

 A link directly to helpful tips:  http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help
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