Leave Policies
There are several forms of leave, and various policies for each form of leave. Below is a brief description of the most common forms of leave. For detailed information regarding WSU's leave policies, please access the Civil Service Leave Policy or the Faculty and Administrative Professional Leave Policy
Annual Leave - Civil Service
A full-time civil services employee is scheduled to work 40 hours in a work week. The accrual rate for a full-time employee is:
| Year | Accrual per year | Accrual per month |
| 1 (of continuous state employment) | 12 days | 8.00 hrs |
| 2 (of continuous state employment) | 13 days | 8.67 hrs |
| 3-4 (of continuous state employment) | 14 days | 9.33 |
| 5-7 (of total state employment) |
15 days | 10.00 |
| 8-10 (of total state employment) | 16 days | 10.67 |
Annual Leave - Faculty and Administrative Professional
Faculty and administrative professional personnel on full-time annual appointments earn annual leave at the rate of 14.67 hours per month of completed service.
Faculty and administrative personnel on full-time annual appointments earn annual leave at the rate of 14.67 hours per month of completed service.
Administrative professional (AP) personnel on academic, temporary, or part-time appointments earn annual leave based upon percent of full-time employment; e.g., half-time employees earn 7.34 hours per month. NOTE: AP appointments are not established for less than 50 percent FTE and/or for less than a six-month term.
Bereavement Leave - Civil Service
A supervisor may approve the use of up to three days of bereavement leave to a civil service employee for a death in the family or household. Upon request, the supervisor may approve additional leave to be charged against the employee's available paid leave balances, or the supervisor may approve the use of leave without pay.
To request additional leave beyond the three days of bereavement leave, the employee submits a written request to her or his supervisor.
Emergency Leave - Faculty and Administrative Professional
Faculty and AP employees may use emergency leave for a death in the family or of a household member/partner or other comparable emergency.
Extended Emergency Leave
Faculty
The Provost or the Provost's designee may extend leave up to ten days for faculty employees. See the Faculty Manual regarding procedures for requesting extended emergency leave.
AP Employees
The employee's administrative officer and the Director of HRS may extend leave up to ten days for administrative professional employees. See the Administrative Professional Handbook regarding procedures for requesting extended emergency leave.
Family Medical Leave - Civil Service, Faculty, and Administrative Professionals
Upon request, all employees must be granted up to a total of 12 work weeks of absence during a rolling twelve-month period to:
Seek treatment and recover for an employee's serious health condition; and/or
Provide care to an employee's newborn, adopted, or foster child.
Eligible Employees
An eligible employee is an employee who has:
Worked for the state for at least 12 months, and
Worked at least 1,250 hours during the previous 12-month period. Paid leave does not count towards the 1,250 hours of work.
Disability leave, including disability leave due to pregnancy and/or childbirth
Supervisors must grant leave to permanent civil service employees who are unable to perform their job duties because they are disabled. WAC 357-31-500 specifically provides such leave for civil service employees who are sick or temporarily disabled because of pregnancy and/or childbirth
Requesting Disability Leave
An employee reports inability to work due to a disability, including disability due to pregnancy and/or childbirth, to his or her supervisor. The supervisor then refers the employee to HRS to apply for disability leave.
The employee must submit medical certification or verification to HRS for the period of disability. For application advisory guidelines and more detailed information about disability leave, including disability leave due to pregnancy and/or childbirth, please contact Angie Currie @ 360-546-9587.
Parental Leave
An eligible employee may request parental leave for the birth and care of the employee's newborn child or the placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care.
Parental Leave Request
The employee submits a written request to her or his supervisor for parental leave, providing a 30-day notice. In the event that the employee is unable to give 30 days notice due to the early birth of placement of a child, the employee is to submit a written request to the supervisor as soon as possible.
The written request is to include the anticipated dates of the leave and the purpose of the leave.
If the requested period of parental leave exceeds the FML period, the supervisor must provide a written response within ten working days as to whether the request is approved or denied. Denial may be based on justifiable operational necessity only. (WAC 357-31-485)
Leave Usage
Civil Service
Parental leave may be a combination of annual leave, personal holiday, compensatory time, and leave without pay. The employee chooses the combination and use of paid and unpaid leave during parental leave. Sick leave may be used for parental leave only if such use meets the criteria specified in WAC 357-31-130.
A Civil Service employee may use a minimum of eight hours of paid leave each month of parental leave to maintain eligibility for WSU-sponsored employee benefits for up to six months of parental leave.
The employee is responsible for her or his portion of the insurance premiums. NOTE: Eight hours of pay may not generate enough pay to cover the employee's portion of the insurance premium. The employee may contact HRS with questions regarding her or his benefits.
Administrative Professional
Parental leave may be a combination of annual leave, personal holiday, compensatory time, sick time, and leave without pay. The employee chooses the combination and use of paid and unpaid leave during parental leave.
Employee may use a minimum of eight hours of paid leave each month of parental leave to maintain eligibility for WSU-sponsored employee benefits for up to 12 weeks of parental leave.
The employee is responsible for her or his portion of the insurance premiums. NOTE: Eight hours of pay may not generate enough pay to cover the employee's portion of the insurance premium. The employee may contact HRS with questions regarding her or his benefits.
Holidays - Civil Service, Faculty, and Administrative Professional
The University provides ten holidays each fiscal year for all employees. Refer to the holiday schedule for current WSU holiday schedules.
Holiday Schedule July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2011
Personal Holiday
Civil Service, Administrative Professional, and Faculty employees are entitled to a paid personal holiday. The personal holiday is in addition to the designated legal holidays which all civil service, AP, and Faculty employees receive in a calendar year.
Sick Leave - Civil Service
Sick leave is credited to the employee's leave balances on a monthly basis, upon completion of the month. Civil Service employees may accumulate unlimited sick leave hours. Full-time civil service employees earn eight hours of sick leave per month.
Sick Leave - Faculty and Administrative Professionals
Full-time faculty and AP employees earn sick leave at the rate of eight hours per month of completed service. Academic-year employees earn eight hours per month (one working day) for each full calendar month of full-time summer employment.
Qualifying part-time faculty and AP employees earn sick leave based on a percent of full time employment; e.g., half-time employees earn four hours per month of completed service.
Training Release Time - Civil Service
Employees are entitled to 96 hours of release time per year to attend training sessions. Applicable training sessions may include management-assigned SkillSoft online classes.