Professional Staff Accrued Leave (PSAL) is accrued on a monthly basis for administrative/contractual employees. The maximum number of hours that can be accrued each fiscal year is 75 hours (10 days) and leave is accrued at the rate of 6.25 hours per month.

PSAL is accrued in the same manner as sick leave and vacation leave. To accrue leave in any month, a person must be in a payable status a major portion of the month. A major portion of a month is defined as 11 workdays.

Your PSAL balance will be reflected on your paycheck stub under the time type "PSAL". Any errors, omissions or changes must be reported to the employee's department supervisor within ninety (90)days of the occurrence.

The College will not be responsible for discrepancies not reported within ninety (90)days of the occurrence. In the resolution of any discrepancy, the official records of the College shall prevail.

Employees may not accrue more than 225 hours (30 days) in their PSAL "bank". This means that once you accrue 225 hours of leave, you cannot accrue additional hours. You will have to use some leave or convert leave to cash (when this option is available once a year)in order to accrue additional leave.

You may apply for leave just as you would apply for vacation leave. Complete a departmental leave form for the desired leave period and submit it to your immediate supervisor for approval. Leave should be scheduled at a time, which is not disruptive to the operation of your department. Leave must be applied for in advance and is subject to the approval of your supervisor based on program needs. Leave must be reported in Odyssey Time and Attendance and your leave form will be maintained in the department.

Subject to availability of funds, each April the Division of Human Resources may notify PEC employees via email.

Administrative/contractual employees of the Cash Option Election Period. During that period, you will indicate whether you want cash up to 75 hours (10 days) of accrued leave. You can designate any number of your accrued PSAL hours to be converted to cash, but never any more than 75 hours of leave.

If you fail to respond to the announcement of the Cash Option Period, the Human Resource Office will irrevocably default your status for that fiscal year to accrued leave. You will not be able to convert leave to cash in that fiscal year.

If you elect to take the cash and change your mind before payment is made, you will be allowed to revert back to accrued leave status. However, if you elect to take leave you will not be permitted to revert back to the cash option. The cash option may only be elected during the Cash Option Election Period, since budget decisions for the next fiscal year will also be made at that time.

If you terminate your employment, you will be paid for leave accrued during the fiscal year in which you terminate your employment only.

The management of your leave days is ultimately your personal responsibility. In order to receive the benefit of days accrued in preceding fiscal years, you will need to schedule time off prior to your termination date through your immediate supervisor. Days not scheduled for payment or leave will be lost.

Leave cannot be taken in advance of accruals. You will accrue PSAL while on vacation or sick leave. State Board of Community College Rule 6A-14.442 prohibits the accrual of leave time while on Professional Development Leave or Terminal Leaves.

The PSAL Cash Option payment will be subject to Withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes, unless by the date it is paid you have already reached the Social Security and or Medicare tax maximum for the calendar year in which payment is made. Withholding tax will be based on the IRS lump sum percentage method of computation.  Florida Retirement System Rules does include salary additive payments such as the Accrued Leave Cash Option in the FRS contribution.

Employees who are retiring or separating from employment, who have accumulated at least $1,000 of accrued leave "Special Pay" (sick leave pay, annual leave/vacation pay and PSAL pay) will have their accrued leave paid in a Tax-Advantaged manner.  Accumulated "special pay" will be placed into the BENCOR National Plan and you will permanently save up to 7.65% in Social Security taxes on your accrued leave payout.

Questions regarding the Professional Staff Accrued Leave program should be directed to the Benefits Department @ Ext. 72010.

5/14/03