Sent on behalf of Matthew Brody:
TO: Chief Human Resources Officers
I am writing to provide guidance to constituent institutions regarding staff employees who have been unable to work on-site or to telework, who have exhausted all personal leave, and who are in a leave without pay (LWOP) status due to the COVID-19 event. This applies in particular to individuals who disclose an inability to report for on-site work due to personal circumstances and/or due to the nature of their job are unable to telework.
As we are soon to approach the one-year mark for the COVID-19 event, we have received inquiries from several constituent institutions about the continued status of these individuals and their LWOP status, and the need to have these positions re-filled based on operational need.
It remains our goal to be maximally supportive of employees impacted by the COVID-19 event and to minimize furloughs, reductions in force, and separations to the greatest extent possible. To this end, the University's efforts to date have included special paid administrative leave, interchangeable use of personal leave, advancement of leave accruals, make-up leave provisions, alternative work assignments as feasible, teleworking and flexible schedules, and COVID-19 leave banks. However, we recognize that there are some employees who are no longer able to be accommodated through these various measures and by necessity were transitioned by the institution to LWOP status.
While we encourage constituent institutions to continue to take all available steps to minimize adverse impacts to employees affected by COVID-19, we also understand that there may be necessity to separate from employment some employees who have been in extended LWOP status. For this reason, constituent institution Chief Human Resources Officers are authorized, in consultation with their management, to implement such separations in accordance with relevant University policies when deemed necessary and absent any remaining reasonable alternatives. Such employees must be separated from employment in adherence with the following policies:
* For SHRA employees, such action is governed by the "separation due to unavailability" section of the State's Separations policyhttps://myapps.northcarolina.edu/hr/download/106/onboarding-separations/4010/separations.html and its defined employee notification requirements.
* For EHRA non-faculty employees, such action is governed by the policy and procedure defined by Sections 300.1.1https://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/policy/index.php?section=300.1.1 and 300.2.1https://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/policy/index.php?section=300.2.1 of the UNC Policy Manual. All such decisions should be reached after careful consideration of all other available options and that takes into account any relevant equal opportunity considerations. Likewise, in the event of separations, care shall be given to documenting the separation in a manner that makes clear that it was not due to deficient performance or misconduct in any manner. Further, if the opportunity exists to re-employ such an impacted individual within 12 months of separation, this should be given all due consideration including a waiver of recruitment in accord with your institutional procedures.
This memorandum is intended to address impacted SHRA and EHRA Non-Faculty staff employees only. Any potential separation of faculty related to COVID-19 impacts is a separate matter and would be subject to the institution's relevant faculty policies in consultation with your provost and legal counsel.
Institutions must report any separations related to COVID-19 and a mechanism to do so will be added to the existing COVID tracking report that institutions provide to UNC System Human Resources each month.
If you have any questions regarding this memorandum, please contact Dawn Spinozza, Darryl Bass, or Chris Chiron in System Office Equity, Engagement and Employee Relations in the Division of Human Resources.