A message from Human Resources
- We have made minor revisions to Policy 6, Vacation – Staff to:
- enable staff to access their earned vacation credits as they are accumulated
- align Policy 6 to the absence request and vacation credits language in Workday
Last week, University leaders approved minor revisions to Policy 6 – Vacation - Staff that will allow new employees to take vacation as they accrue days in their first year of employment.
Working together, the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Staff Compensation (PACSC) and the Staff Relations Committee (SRC) recommended the changes that took effect on July 1, 2022.
In reviewing Policy 6, the PACSC identified that the ability to take time off each year is important from an employee health and well-being perspective, and they recognized that requiring new employees to wait until the start of the new vacation cycle (July 1 – June 30) to use their earned vacation may have a negative impact on employees during their first years of service with the University.
These revisions mean that new staff, with manager approval, can use their prorated vacation amounts earned from their start date in their first year of employment during the current vacation cycle, instead of at the start of the next vacation cycle year. For example, if a new employee starts on September 1, 2022, they no longer have to wait until July 1, 2023, to use earned vacation and can use prorated vacation days as the credited days become available. New staff should connect with their manager to ask about the number of vacation credits earned since their start date, which is visible to their manager.
The revisions also align our policy to vacation time tracking in Workday. From now on, the policy will show the hours of vacation amounts in addition to days/weeks.
There are no changes to any currently allocated vacation entitlements based on years of service.
You can learn more about your vacation and holidays on the Human Resources website.
If you have any questions about these revisions to Policy 6, please contact Human Resources at HRhelp@uwaterloo.ca for support.