Chancellor Linda Katehi on Oct. 14 announced a new closure plan for the Davis campus that trims four days off the original plan for the December-January holidays. Now, instead of being closed from Dec. 18 through Jan. 3, the campus will be closed from Dec. 24 through Jan. 3.

Katehi said the new approach “allows the campus to perform critical functions before the holidays and closely aligns with our historical operating conditions during this time period.”

The previously announced closure dates of March 24-25 and June 14-15 remain unchanged.

The campus closures are intended to serve as common furlough days for those employees who are subject to furloughs. Now, instead of 11 common furlough days, there will be seven.

Even with the revision, Katehi pointed out, individual units retain the discretion to set up their own common furlough days.

Most employees in the furlough plan are required to take 11 to 26 days of unpaid leave over a 12-month period. After subtracting for campus closure days and unit closures, if any, some employees will still need to take more furlough days — and these must be scheduled in consultation with supervisors.

The furlough-salary reduction plan, which took effect Sept. 1, applies to faculty and staff, with some exceptions. The entire medical center is exempt, though the center is expected to generate comparable budget savings.

The Davis campus’s original closure plan came out Aug. 28. Since then, Katehi said, she and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Enrique Lavernia “received thoughtful feedback about the plan from staff, managers, faculty and Academic Senate leaders.”

In addition, Katehi said, the UC Office of the President provided clarification of labor contracts in relation to holiday closures, “and we have developed a better understanding of some of the practical issues and contractual constraints as they apply to the previously announced closure plan.”

During campus closures, essential services will continue to operate at a minimal level, Katehi said. Decisions in this regard must be made in accordance with personnel policies and applicable labor agreements and are subject to discussion or collective bargaining.

Any employee who must work on a closure day, and who is subject to furloughs, must arrange to take a different day off without pay.

Furlough days are supposed to be taken only after they accrue; however, employees are allowed to use some of their furlough time, in advance of accrual, during campus closures.

Most major unions have not agreed to the furlough plan. Still, represented employees, if subject to the furlough-salary reduction plan and whose services are not deemed essential on closure days, are not expected to come to work.

Employees in this situation will need to: take vacation time; take compensatory time; take unpaid leave; or talk with their supervisors about alternative work arrangements.

The furlough-salary reduction plan aims for cuts of 4 percent to 10 percent from most people’s paychecks. And, regardless of whether represented employees agree to furloughs, the university still intends to cut their pay in amounts equal to what other employees are losing.

UC Davis plans to achieve such savings by ordering temporary layoffs or reductions in time, at a minimum, for union-represented employees who are not exempt from the furlough plan and whose unions have not agreed to it.

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