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Purpose

This policy provides guidelines for campus closings including those that dictate suspension of services and/or closure of operations on one or more campuses.

Policy

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In the event of severe weather conditions or other emergency situations, the university may suspend normal operations and classes in whole or part of the impacted campus(es). If normal activities are suspended in any way, all employees whose positions are designated as essential personnel at the affected campus(es) must report to work as soon as conditions reasonably permit in order to ensure the continuation of critical campus operations, attend to the needs of students and others, and maintain and protect the university’s property.

Campus Closing Notification

In emergency situations where the St. Paul campus (including off-campus sites) may close or suspend operations before the normal workday begins, the Office of Marketing and Communications will update the Bethel website and use the Bethel alert system to call or text students and employees at the number(s) registered with the alert system by 6 a.m. Announcements will also be broadcast on local television stations, including WCCO-TV 4, KARE-11, Fox 9, and KTSP-TV 5.

A decision to suspend campus operations during the workday will be communicated to departments from the Office of Marketing and Communications by 3 p.m.

Attendance when the Campus Remains Open

Employees who are unable to report to work due to weather conditions when the campus is open must use paid leave. Unpaid leave may be used after paid leave is exhausted. Emergency leave is not available when the campus is open. The university expects employees to make a good faith effort to report to work during inclement weather if the campus has not declared an emergency closing.

Attendance and Compensation During an Emergency Closing

Non-essential Personnel:

The university provides paid emergency leave to those employees whose positions are not designated as essential during an emergency closing and who were scheduled to work on the day of the emergency closing. Non-essential personnel are not required to call in or report to work when the university is closed.

Exempt full- and part-time staff will be paid for a normal day of work and do not need to report any time on their leave reports. Full- and part-time non-exempt staff scheduled to work on the day of an emergency closing will be paid regular pay for scheduled work hours that day. Those hours should be recorded as “emergency time” on timesheets.

Employees who are not scheduled to work or who are on approved vacation and/or personal leave during an emergency closing are not eligible for paid emergency leave.

Essential Personnel:

During an emergency, essential personnel provide services that relate directly to the health, safety, and welfare of the university, ensure continuity of key operations, and maintain and protect university property.

The nature and timing of the emergency will impact which positions are essential to critical campus operations. The department head and/or supervisor will notify individuals who are required to report to work as essential personnel as soon as administratively possible. All employees designated as essential personnel during an emergency are required to report to or remain at work as scheduled or requested.

Essential personnel who are required to work but unable to do so as scheduled, for whatever reason, must contact their immediate supervisor at least one hour in advance of the starting time to report the absence.

Positions designated as essential personnel for the emergency will be compensated as follows:

1. Exempt full and part-time staff whose positions are designated as essential will be paid for a normal day of work. Exempt employees, per the Department of Labor, are not eligible for overtime or compensatory time.
2. Non-exempt staff whose positions are designated as essential will be paid regular pay at their hourly rate for all hours worked during their regular work schedule plus an additional 1x their hourly rate as "essential personnel premium pay (EPP)" for these same hours. The maximum amount of EPP per emergency closing an employee is eligible for is 8 hours. Any on-call hours do not count toward EPP and should be recorded as on-call.  (See On-call Pay section of Employee Handbook for further details.)

EXAMPLE: The campus closes on a Monday due to a snow emergency. All regularly scheduled hours between Monday at 12 a.m. through Monday at 11:59 p.m. count toward EPP pay.

To illustrate how this will be reflected on paychecks, see the following examples:

1. Employee A is scheduled to work 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. The employee reported for work before the normal start time for snow removal at 6 a.m. and went home at 4:30 p.m. This employee should mark his/her timesheet as follows:

• 2 hours of on-call time (6-8 a.m.)
• 8 hours of regular time (8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.)
• 8 hours of EPP time (8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.)

2.  Employee B is scheduled to work 11 p.m. - 7:30 a.m. and began work at 11 p.m. Monday and went home at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday. This employee should mark his/her timesheet as follows:

• 8 hours of regular time (11 p.m.-7:30 a.m.)
• 1 hour of EPP time (11 p.m.-midnight)

3.  Employee C is scheduled to work 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and began work at 8 a.m. and went home at noon. This employee should mark his/her timesheet as follows:

• 4 hours of regular time (8 a.m.-noon)
• 4 hours of emergency time (12:30-4:30 p.m.)
• 4 hours of EPP time (8 a.m.-noon)

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