ACE Members,
Floating Leave Review
After talking with members, here is a complied deep dive review:
9.3 Floating Leave
Each full-time permanent worker shall be granted up to a maximum of 40 hours of paid leave per year as a floating leave. Permanent part-time workers who work fewer than 40 hours per week are entitled to that proportion of floating leave hours granted full-time workers that is equal to the percent of a full-time contract. Eligibility for floating leave begins on the first of the calendar month following six complete months of employment.
Floating leave may be used for planned absences for which other leaves (sick leave, personal necessity leave) are inappropriate, such as special family obligation (attending a family member’s graduation or marriage ceremony) or celebrating a birthday or special occasion. The worker may, but is not required to, inform the supervisor of the purpose or nature of the request.
Floating leave is not cumulative, will not accrue from year to year, and must be utilized during the college year (July 1 – June 30) or will be lost. Floating leave has no cash-value, and any unused floating leave hours shall not be converted to other leave credits upon separation from service. Floating leave must be scheduled in advance with the supervisor, and must have the approval of the supervisor as evidenced by the supervisor’s signature on the time sheet.
Why was this change made?
Our Agreement has always included Personal Necessity Leave (defined by Ed Code) as a subset of Sick Leave, but our separate Personal Leave led to confusion for Human Resources new hires (pre-2024).
What changed?
Here’s a table and explanation:
| Pre-2024 | Post-2024 |
| 10.1 Sick Leave (10.1 Personal Necessity Leave) | 10.1 Sick Leave (10.10 Personal Necessity Leave) |
| 10.10 Personal Leave | 9.3 Floating Leave |
Per our Agreement there are two key things to understand about Floating Leave:
- It is a catch-all for anything which other leaves may not be appropriate for, and;
- You are not required to disclose what you are using it for.
How do I request Floating Leave?
The District is working on updating Banner and LiquidOffice, but the expectation is that our existing pool Personal Leave will be renamed to Floating Leave. Until then you can request to use Floating Leave by emailing your manager/supervisor/administrator a message saying, “I would like to use floating leave on [planned day]. Please respond if you approve my request.”
What if they ask what I’m using Floating Leave for?
The suggested response would be, “I am not required to provide information regarding the purpose or nature of the request.”
Until Banner and LiquidOffice are updated, how do I show that I used Floating Leave?
For now, use the Personal Leave drop down category in LiquidOffice. Add a note where LiquidOffice allows stating that Floating Leave was approved on the days you chose Personal Leave.
(Yes, it’s admittedly confusing right now but it will be corrected.)
What if I need to take Personal Necessity Leave?
Personal Necessity Leave is available to permanent and probationary workers, and it is drawn from Sick Leave, so you would use the Sick Leave drop down category in LiquidOffice and add a note stating that the Sick Leave was used for circumstances (but not limited to) of personal necessity under 10.10:
10.10.1 Emergencies or obligations related to the worker’s home or family members, including medical or dental appointments for the worker’s family members when the nature of the appointment requires the worker’s presence,
10.10.2 Emergencies or obligations related to the worker, including appointments for the purpose of conducting personal legal affairs or financial transactions, receipt of a court order requiring absence from work, or observation of a major religious holiday of the worker’s faith.
10.10.3 Extending bereavement leave for the employee’s immediate family; or
10.10.4 Appearance in any court or before any administrative tribunal as a litigant, party, or witness under subpoena or any order made with jurisdiction.
What if I have more questions or getting leaves approved?
Reach out to a Steward.
Below is a sample image of my LiquidOffice Time Card (LOTR) from October which includes the dropdown of available codes. I’d like to focus on 3 of them:
- 180 Sick Leave – This is most commonly used for when you are sick and does not require pre-approval.
- How to use it: “I’m staying home today, I’m sick” or “I have a medical appointment for preventative treatment or diagnosis”
- See 10.1 (LINK)
- 185 Personal Necessity Leave – This covers unavoidable emergencies and obligations related to your household (does not require pre-approval [unless it can be anticipated/scheduled]).
- How to use it: “I have an unavoidable obligation that takes place during work hours. If you have questions, let schedule a conversation.”
- See 10.10 (LINK)
- 300 Floating Leave – This could be used for anything (requires pre-approval).
- How to use it: “I would like to use floating leave on Friday. I’m not required to disclose the purpose or nature of this request.”
- See 9.3 (LINK)
CalPERS Member Education
Want to know more about the pension plan? Member education events are available on the CalPERS website – https://www.calpers.ca.gov/education-center/member-education
On the same page you can sign up for email alerts that will ping you monthly, which is also a good reminder to attend an event or check out a video on your topic of interest:
CalPERS may not be the largest social media influencer, but they are on YouTube if you’d like to subscribe to their channel – https://www.youtube.com/CalPERS
Create an account to view, manage, and create retirement estimates at https://mycalpers.ca.gov/ .
We may be able to answer some questions at upcoming site meetings, but CalPERS is the ultimate source for details about his benefit.
ACE Website WordPress Woes
Our website is a valuable resource for union updates, contract information, forms, and information about our organization. Unfortunately, some components are not aging gracefully. This week a plug-in broke access to pages and had to be disabled. This is occurring more frequently, so it’s probably beyond time to redesign the site and remove those old plugins which cause compatibility issues. Despite my technical background and personal Geocities experience, it does become a bit of a challenge and there’s an awareness that it may be unmanageable for others to support in the future.
Want to get involved in the fix? Do you have a WordPress background and desire to provide additional guidance? Contact @Scott Olsen
AB 65 Pregnancy Leave Bill
Attached is the CalSTRS analysis for a state bill up for discussion. I’ll highlight the important pieces which would affect us at the district:
Specifically, this bill:
• Requires public school employers and community college districts to provide up to 14 weeks of leave with full pay to certificated and classified employees who experience pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, termination of pregnancy or recovery from those conditions as determined by the employee and employee’s physician.
• Provides a formula for calculating the amount of leave for part-time employees.
• Permits the paid leave to begin before or continue after childbirth.
• Prohibits a paid leave of absence for any of these reasons from being deducted from other leaves of absence available to the employee.
• Requires employers to maintain group health coverage for an employee who takes this leave for the duration of the leave and at the same level and under the same conditions of coverage they would have been provided had they not taken the leave.
• States that employers have an obligation to continue complying with bargaining agreements that provide greater disability or parental leave rights to employees than those provided by this bill.
• Extends provisions that require, except as provided by the bill, employers to apply policies and practices for disability due to pregnancy or childbirth in the same manner as other temporary disabilities to classified employees.
• Provides that there are no eligibility requirements for this leave, including, but not limited to, minimum hours worked or length of service, except for those laid out in the bill.
This would be a substantial benefit beyond our current collective bargaining agreement to address inequity in the workplace. Sometimes we’re able to negotiate for added contract benefits and sometimes the law can provide those added benefits. Please contact your state representatives to provide your feedback on this proposed bill – https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/
Do you have a topic to contribute to these member email updates? Send them my way! I can credit you or you could be anonymous. Anything that directly affects our work environment is a great subject to raise.
From yesterday’s message, we have a copy of “Secrets of a Successful Organizer” to provide to members who are visually impaired or would like an accessible version.
In Service,
Scott Olsen (he/him) | ACE President
https://acefhda.org | scott.olsen@acefhda.org
650-949-7789 | M-F 8:00am-5:00pm