We had a similar situation arise this summer.  One of our long-term valued
employees passed away in July. His sick leave cashout at the rate of 1/4
hour for each hour was covered by a central administration budget.  The
unused annual leave was covered by federal grants on which he worked.

Judith Opacki

____________________________________________________________
Judith Opacki, Administrator            Tel: (206) 543-6026
Cloud & Aerosol Research                Fax: (206) 685-7160 or 543-0308
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Washington
Box 351640
Seattle, WA  98195-1640  USA

On Tue, 27 Oct 1998, Herbert B. Chermside wrote:

> At VCU we have had problems over the years with severance pay.
>
> We are a state insititution.  Individuals may move freely from "state line"
> (state tax appropriations) positions to "grant" (sponsored) positions.  All
> are state employees.  By state personnel regulations, unused sick and
> annual leave accrue (with limits) and must be paid on termination of state
> employment.  Furthermore, the employee's accrued balances move with her as
> she moves to a new position.  It is because this is consistent throughout
> the state personnel system that A-21 is interpreted to allow these costs.
>
> Normally, there is no reason to plan/budget to pay such expenses.  But you
> do have to pay it if the situation arises.
>
> A couple of practices to minimize the impace -- call for pre-planning that
> is all too infrequent.
> 1)      Require that all "grant" employees take leave in the period they earned
> it, or loose it.  Downside:  supervisor often forgets that the leave is
> EARNED and the employee needs to take it, and deserves significant
> consideration as to her wishes for dates.
> 2)      Require each PI to consider terminations costs each time she hires a
> person.
> 3)      If the person has worked on a very long term project for years, then
> maybe the program people at the sponsor will pony up more $ for
> terminations costs.
>
> BUT think it through -- if you have to pay termination costs, you have
> worked the employee more intensely than the employment contract called for.
>  Who got the benefit of that work?  Can you make them pay?
>
> Of course the total solution is a payroll/costing system that charges
> projects for "productive hours" and accumulates the accrued leave cash in
> another account, which is charged when leave is taken.  A common commercial
> accounting practice, but unusual in a non-profit setting.
>
> Chuck
>
>
> At 08:03 AM 10/27/98 CST, you wrote:
> >I have a question about severance pay in grant proposals.  The Director of
> our
> >Student Support Services grant retired and our Budget Director is saying
> >severance pay -- a significant amount of money -- must come out of grant
> funds.
> >  The feds have told her this is an allowable expense.  This may have a
> >devastating effect on the grant project.  My actual question, however, is:  I
> >have never heard of including severance pay in an original grant proposal.
>  Has
> > anyone out there done this?
> >
> >Nancy Kay Peterson
> >Director of Grants
> >Somsen Hall, Room 202-C
> >Winona State University
> >Winona, MN  55987
> >Phone:  507/457-5519
> >FAX:       507/457-2415
> >email:    xxxxxx@winona.msus.edu
> >Web:     http://www.winona.msus.edu/grants/index.html
> >
> Herbert B. Chermside, CRA
> Director, Sponsored Programs Administration
> Virginia Comonwealth University
> PO BOX 980568
> Richmond, VA  23298-0568
> Express Delivery Only:
>         Sanger Hall, Rm. 1-073
>         11th & Marshall Streets
>         Richmond, VA  23219
> Voice:  804-828-6772
> Fax     804-828-2521
> OFFICE e-mail   xxxxxx@VCU.EDU
> Personal e-mail xxxxxx@vcu.edu
> http://views.vcu.edu/views/ospa/
>