Excess Annual Leave Rollover & Retention

At the end of each calendar year, employees’ annual (vacation) leave balances in excess of the maximum year-end balance are converted into sick leave on an hour-for-hour basis. As outlined in policy, extraordinary circumstances allow the University to approve retention of excess annual leave. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on personal activities and/or travel, and employees’ ability to utilize annual leave this calendar year, the University will increase the maximum year-end limits for calendar year 2020.

Staff and Faculty will automatically retain up to 80 hours of annual leave beyond the normal maximum for their classification in order to be able to properly plan and use them in calendar year 2021. 

2020 Maximum Year-End Annual Leave Balances:

Hours in excess of the 2020 maximum year-end annual leave balances as of December 24, 2020, will be converted to sick leave. Employees will not be eligible to retain annual leave beyond the 2020 maximum year-end limits. Employees who do not want to retain the 80 hours of annual leave will be provided the option to be excluded and will have hours above the normal maximum year-end balance for their classification converted to sick leave. Additional information on how employees may opt out from the automatic retention process will be released later this fall.

The increase to the 2020 maximum year-end annual leave balances will NOT impact the lifetime maximum leave payout limits outlined in policy. All leave payouts will be in accordance with normal maximum payout amounts.

We appreciate everyone’s contribution during this unprecedented time and hope this temporary exception to normal policy will allow employees to properly plan use of their vacation time next year. Thank you for all you do.

Questions? Contact Sue Andres at sandres@fsu.edu or (850) 644-5052.