Personal Leave for 12-Month Employees

Yes, upon separation of employment, employees will receive payment for a maximum of 240 hours of Personal Leave (prorated) for part-time employees. This is referred to as terminal leave pay.

Terminal leave pay will be processed in the pay period after the last payroll in which compensation is paid. The payment will be received via the same method as your regular paycheck (direct deposit or check). This payment is subject to tax withholding and state retirement contributions.

• Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS) participants: After processing the terminal leave payment limited to 240 hours (prorated for part-time employees), the remaining balance of your Personal and Major Medical Leave will be submitted to PERS and be applied to your retirement account as additional months of service credit.

• Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) participants: After payment of terminal leave pay limited to 240 hours (prorated for part-time employees), the remaining balance of Personal Leave and Major Medical Leave will be forfeited.

Yes, we will accept transfer of leave from Institutions of Higher Learning and state agencies if there is no break in employment. Human Resources will determine if a transfer is permitted.

To transfer hours, the former employer must submit a memo to University payroll staff that includes the employee name, date of hire, date of separation, accrual rate and hours transferred.

When leave is transferred from another state agency, the employee will accrue leave based on their date of hire with the previous agency.

For example: 

• An employee is hired into a staff position on January 1, 2018. Their monthly accrual rate for personal Leave is 12 hours per month.
• An employee transferred from another state agency on January 1, 2018. The start date with the former employer was January 1, 2012. The employee will begin accruing leave with the University of Mississippi at 14 hours of personal leave per month.

State agencies are permitted to accept the transfer of leave from another Mississippi state agency. The acceptance of such transfers is at the new employer’s discretion.

When Personal Leave is exhausted, time away from work will be unpaid. When an exempt (salaried) employee is off work for an entire workday, they must have sufficient accrued leave to cover all hours not worked.

It is critical for a department to immediately process a Form 3 to place an exempt (salaried) employee on “Leave of Absence without Pay” status if the employee has exhausted Personal Leave to prevent the employee from being overpaid. The Form 3 must be received by Human Resources before the last day of the pay period in which the unpaid day occurs.

Major Medical Leave cannot be used for personal absences.

Personal Leave, compensatory leave or Leave Without Pay must be used as eight hours first day illness (prorated for a part-time employee) before major medical may be used. When you exhaust all major medical hours, your personal hours will be used for the remainder of your absence.

Should an employee pass away with accumulated Personal Leave credit, the wages or salary for the total unused Personal Leave time shall be paid to the person designated by the employee for this purpose or, in the absence of such designation, to the beneficiary of the employee as recorded with the PERS or ORP accounts.