Attendance Records
All classified service employees are required to keep detailed records of hours worked and times of arrival and departure on a daily basis on the Classified Service Attendance Record provided by the College. Such records must show leave credits used and absences not charged to leave. Completed time sheets must be submitted for supervisory review and approval and then forwarded to the Payroll Office. A late time sheet may result in the employee's check being held in the Payroll Office and delayed payment of overtime or holiday pay compensation.

All hours worked must be reported on the timesheet. It is unlawful to keep “unofficial” records for the purpose of avoiding overtime. Falsification of time and attendance records shall constitute grounds for discipline pursuant to the applicable collective bargaining agreement.

Attendance records must be completed in compliance with Buffalo State’s policies and procedures. Accordingly, use of all accruals and accumulation of all compensatory leave and overtime had supervisory approval.  In accordance with Section 20.2 of the NYS Attendance Rules, falsification of an employee's attendance or time record constitutes a serious violation of the Attendance Rules and may serve as a basis for disciplinary action.

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Civil Service Examinations and Subsequent Interviews
Employee shall be allowed leave with pay, and thus no charge to accruals, to take New York State Civil Service examinations and subsequent interviews provided that due notice is given by the employee to the College. Interviews initiated by the employee for a lateral transfer must be charged to accruals.

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Extended Leave of Absence
If an employee needs to be placed on a medical leave (surgery, hospitalization, extended illness, etc.), they must fill out an extended leave form and submit it to the Human Resource Management Office for review. This form must be accompanied by medical documentation supporting the request for sick leave. The extended leave form requires supervisory approval. A Confidential Medical Statement, in addition to the medical documentation submitted with the request, must be filled out by the employee's attending physician and submitted to Human Resource Management. Without both of these forms, an employee cannot be placed on extended leave, and therefore, will be placed on a leave without pay. These forms may be obtained in the Human Resource Management Office (Cleveland Hall
403) or on our web site.    If an employee is placed on an extended leave for medical reasons, the time used will be charged against available sick leave accruals. Upon exhaustion of sick accruals, the time will be charged to vacation, personal leave, holiday, and overtime accruals.

The employee's attending physician must supply the College with sufficient medical documentation and an approximate date for return to work. The College may require the employee to be examined by a physician, at the College's expense, for another medical opinion.

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Extraordinary Circumstances
An employee who has reported for duty, and because of extraordinary circumstances beyond his/her control, other than those related to weather conditions, is directed to leave work, shall not be required to charge such directed absence during that workday. See the Emergency Closing Policy.

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Holidays
The following holidays are days off without charge to leave credits:  New Year's Day, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Lincoln's Birthday, Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Election Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day.

Employees who are required to work on a holiday will receive holiday pay unless they have filed a written statement with the Payroll Office stating that they want compensatory time instead of pay. (Refer to the union agreement for the specific dates by which the Payroll Office must be notified.)

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Jury Duty
If you are required to appear for jury duty or are subpoenaed as a witness in court, you shall be granted a leave of absence with pay without charge to leave accruals. If you are a party to a court proceeding, you will have to charge accruals other than sick for all such absences. Prior to attending jury duty, notify your supervisor and provide him/her with a copy of your orders from the court. Once you attend jury duty, the court will provide you with another document verifying your service. Attach this document to your attendance record and/or provide a copy to your supervisor.

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Leave of Absence
A permanent employee may, at the discretion of the College, be granted a leave of absence from his/her position, without pay, for a period not exceeding one year. Such leave may be extended beyond one year, for periods aggregating not in excess of an additional one year, only with the approval of the Civil Service Commission. In an exceptional case, a further extension may be permitted by the Commission for good cause shown and where the interests of the government would be served. For the purpose of this part, time spent in active service in the military forces of the United States or of the State of New York shall not be considered in computing the period of leave.

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Maternity Leave
An employee should notify her supervisor of her pregnancy as soon as possible so that arrangements can be made to accommodate a leave of absence request. Following this notice, the employee should contact the Human Resource Management Office to request the leave of absence.

The maternity portion of the leave applies to the short-term disability period prior to delivery and shortly after delivery, usually 6 to 8 weeks. Like any disability, this part of the absence may be charged to sick leave with or without pay at the employee's option, and will require medical documentation.

Child rearing leave is available to employees of both sexes for a period up to (7) seven months post delivery or following adoption. It may be taken as leave with or without pay. If the employee chooses with pay all accruals except sick leave may be charged. Where both parents are employed by the State, such leave may be split between them.

An employee who takes child-rearing leave without pay will be contacted by the Benefits division of the Human Resource Management Office about the impact of that decision on their insurance.

In no case shall child-rearing leave be extended beyond 7 months past delivery without approval of the employee's department head and Human Resource Management.

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Overtime and Comp Time
All overtime and comp time must be approved in advance by the supervisor. For overtime computation, the basic workweek for Buffalo State is from Thursday morning through the following Wednesday evening. Hours worked in excess of a 40 hour week constitutes overtime for which eligible persons are entitled compensation at time and one-half, subject to the rules established by the Division of Budget.

For employees whose basic workweek is 37½ hours, time worked between 37½ hours and 40 hours is compensable by equivalent time off. Accumulation and liquidation of compensatory time must be in units of no less than ¼ hour. No employee shall be allowed to accumulate compensatory credits in excess of 30 workdays. Compensatory time accumulated during a fiscal year must be liquidated prior to the beginning of the next fiscal year or it is forfeited.

In the event of the death of an employee, his/her estate or beneficiary shall be paid the monetary value of the accumulated compensatory time credits up to the equivalent of 30 days.

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Performance Evaluation
The performance evaluation process for classified employee, those employees represented by CSEA, PEF, etc., is not unlike the performance evaluation process for Management/Confidential and UUP represented employee. Similarly, the process begins with the development of the performance program, and concludes with the supervisor's appraisal and rating of the employee's performance of the tasks identified in the performance program. A performance appraisal is an active process; therefore, communication between supervisor and employee should be ongoing. The performance evaluation form is merely an instrument that is used to facilitate, summarize, and formalize the evaluation process.

The performance evaluation rating cycle begins when the employee is initially hired, promoted, or changes salary grade by some other means and ends a year from when that date recurs. The performance program describes the department's mission, identifies the most important tasks of the position, and describes the standards for satisfactory performance of those responsibilities. (For assistance in developing the performance program, you may obtain job descriptions from the Human Resource Management Office, Cleveland Hall 403.)

Supervisors should maintain a record of any conversations, positive and negative, with the employee throughout the course of the evaluation period. Approximately four weeks before the end of the evaluation period, the supervisor drafts an assessment of the employee's performance and meets with the employee to discuss it. Afterward, the supervisor prepares the formal evaluation and assigns a rating and forwards it to their supervisor for review and approval. Lastly, the supervisor discusses the assessment and rating with the employee and gives the person a copy of the evaluation. The process starts again with a discussion of the new performance program.

It is necessary to continue doing performance evaluations even if the employee is at the top of the salary range for their position. The process provides a foundation for longevity award's (lump sum payments to employees for satisfactory performance at or above the rate for five year increments), and the process facilitates employee development as the department changes over time.

Labor and management have agreed that employees at the job rate will be evaluated January 15 of each year. If you have any questions about your employee's evaluation period, call the Human Resource Management Office at ext. 4822.  Performance program and evaluation forms are available for download.

Questions concerning an employee's salary relative to the job rate for their salary grade may be directed to the Payroll Office at ext. 4124.

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Personal Leave
All employees, with the exception of PEF represented employees hired on or after April 1, 1982, are granted 5 days of personal leave each year on their anniversary date. Personal leave is a paid absence for the purpose of conducting personal business, which cannot be scheduled during other than working hours, or for religious observance.

An employee need not give a reason to use personal leave; however, such request must be submitted at least 48 hours in advance of the requested time. If the required notice is not given, personal leave may be approved subject to documentation upon return to work.

Personal leave is not cumulative; any unused personal leave credits remaining on the employee's anniversary date will be cancelled. An employee shall not be compensated in cash for unused personal leave upon separation from State service, retirement, or death.

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Sick Leave
Unlike other leave accruals described herein, sick leave is a privilege and not a right. With the exception of PEF represented employees hired on or after 4/1/82, employees accrue sick leave at a rate of ½ day per biweekly pay period, provided that the employee is in full pay status at least 7 days of the pay period. The maximum accumulation for sick leave credits is dependent upon the employee's bargaining unit; however, all employees may accumulate at least 165 days which may be used for retirement service or to pay for health insurance in retirement. Less than full-time employees earn credits on a prorated basis.

As a privilege, an employee does not have the right to exhaust sick leave accruals as they are earned. Sick leave is appropriately used for dental and medical appointments, and personal illness or disability which prevents an employee from coming to work. In order to charge sick leave accruals for an absence resulting from personal illness, the employee must call their supervisor as soon as possible, but no later than two hours past the beginning of the employee's workday. Before returning to work from an illness or disability, the College may require the employee to see a State physician, at the College's expense, to insure that the employee is able to perform all of their duties, and to ensure that the employee's return will not jeopardize the safety of co-workers. A maximum of 15 days of sick leave per calendar year may be used for death or illness in the employee's immediate family. Sick leave is appropriately used for family sickness when the employee is required to provide medically related care to a family member.

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Sick Leave at Half Pay
Sick leave at half pay will be granted to members of the CSEA Units in accordance with the terms of their contract. Sick leave at half pay may be granted to permanent employees in other negotiating units who have at least one year of service for personal illness after all of his/her sick leave, vacation, personal leave, and compensatory time credits have been used. However, the cumulative total of sick leave at half pay granted to any employee during his/her State service shall not exceed one pay period for each completed 6 months of State service.

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Trial Period (Probation)
There is a trial period of 52 weeks for all new classified employees. This period provides supervisors with an opportunity to evaluate performance and determine an employee's compatibility for performing position duties satisfactorily. Written performance evaluations should be conducted at 8 week intervals. No employee can secure permanent status before 26 weeks from the date of appointment.

Any College employee who accepts an on-campus promotion, a promotion to another State agency, or transfers to or from another State agency in title must serve a 26 week probationary period. While serving probation, the employee is placed on a leave without pay from their former position.

Permanent status is not automatic. The College may terminate employment any time during the trial period, as set forth under the Civil Service Law.

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Vacation Leave
Upon completion of 13 biweekly periods of service, new employees are credited with 6 ½ days of vacation. Thereafter, they earn and accumulate vacation credits at the rate of ½ day (3 ¾ hours for employees working 37 ½ hours a week; and 4 credit hours for employees working 40 hours a week) per biweekly pay period until they have completed 7 years of continuous service. Vacation credits are not earned for any biweekly pay period unless the employee is in full pay status for at least 7 workdays during such pay period.

Part-time employees, who are required to work a fixed schedule of at least half time each biweekly pay period, will also receive vacation accruals on a prorated basis.

Upon completion of each full year of continuous service, employees are credited with additional vacation in accordance with the following schedule (the schedule below does not apply to PEF represented employees hired on or after 4/1/88).

After the anniversary date of which an employee has been credited with 7 years of additional vacation credits, he/she thereafter earns vacation at a rate which equals 20 days for 26 pay periods.

Vacation credits shall not be permitted to accumulate in excess of 40 days, unless such excess is attributable to the denial of an employee's request for time off (refer to the union agreement). However, any vacation credits in excess of 40 days at the end of the fiscal year will be forfeited.

Employees should pay particular attention to accruals noted on time sheets so that the maximum is not exceeded. Please note that although employees can accumulate up to 40 days, a lump sum payment may be made for a maximum of 30 days accrued vacation time upon retirement, death, or separation from service to the employee or the employee's estate or beneficiary.

Supervisors must approve vacation leave request at least 48 hours in advance. Should such request be denied, the designee must provide written notification within 5 working days of vacation request.

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Work Schedule
The normal workday for all non-shift employees is 8:15 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., with 45 minutes for lunch. However, this may vary to suite department needs within specified contractual limitations. It is expected that every employee will report to work on time. Be sure to review regular hours with all new hires. Excessive tardiness or absenteeism may lead to a loss in pay and/or disciplinary action.

Depending on the job, the basic workweek for full-time employee is 37½ hours (for non-shift employees) or 40 hours a week for maintenance and security personnel. The basic workweek consists of five consecutive workdays, usually Monday through Friday with two consecutive days off. Compensation is received on a biweekly basis; the pay period begins on a Thursday and ends at the close of business on the second succeeding Wednesday, which is payday.

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