UCF recognizes that some of our faculty and staff members are facing significant hardship and loss due to the impact of Hurricane Ian.
In support of these employees, UCF is establishing the Hurricane Ian Disaster Leave Program. This program will allow us to provide impacted and eligible employees with additional leave to have time to address their recovery needs.
Instructions for Impacted Employees and their Supervisors
Eligible faculty and staff facing severe hardships may utilize up to 40 hours of Hurricane Ian Disaster Leave beginning Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. The leave program will be in effect for 30 days, through Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022. Employees do not need to exhaust current leave balances to be eligible for Hurricane Ian Disaster Leave.
- Impacted employees should communicate directly with their supervisors regarding their ability to return to work and their need to utilize the hurricane leave program.
- Supervisors can directly approve the employee’s requests via email based on the eligibility criteria guidance shared below.
Impacted employees and supervisors will receive additional instructions later this week on how to document disaster leave requests in Workday.
Eligibility Criteria and Leave Pool Guidelines
The program is available to employees who currently accrue annual and sick leave and for whom the disaster has caused severe hardship to the employee, or to their immediate family members, that requires them to be absent from work. Examples of severe hardship include displacement; the need to remediate flood damage to an employee’s or immediate family member’s home; loss of transportation due to flooding; inability to physically travel to campus due to road closures or obstructions; and/or inability to work or telework due to school or daycare closures.
If severe hardships continue during the 30-day period, additional hours may be available with approval from UCF HR. HR will communicate information to impacted employees who may need to request additional hours due to severe hardship.
Hourly employees who are not eligible for paid time off may apply for financial assistance through the university’s Employee Emergency Relief Fund, which was created within the UCF Foundation and is funded by donors and members of our community. Instructions how to apply for a grant from this program will be shared later this week.
Supporting the Disaster Leave Pool
Employees will be able to contribute accrued annual leave and sick hours to the disaster relief pool in support of their colleagues. Additionally, those who contributed leave to the COVID-19 Knights Care Leave Share program can choose to transfer those hours to this program. HR will share more information this week about how to donate and/or transfer hours to the new leave pool.
We appreciate how Knights are known for lifting one another up in times of need. Our UCF community deeply cares for and supports each other, and those values must guide us in the coming weeks.
Visit https://www.ucf.edu/hurricane/ for additional resources. Questions about the Hurricane Ian Disaster Leave program should be directed to HRConnection@ucf.edu
