Service Award Program
The service time described in this section relates to service awards and leave accrual. It does not apply to retirement or seniority point calculations.
Staff members are eligible for service awards after completing at least 10 years of service, and every five years after that (15, 20, 25, etc.) In addition to receiving a service award, employees are given a higher accrual rate for vacation as they accumulate service. The average vacation accrual rate increase is two additional hours a month after 10 years and two hours a month every five years after that, up to 16 hours maximum (20 years).
Reference: Holidays, Hours of Work and Leave Accrual Rates
Human Resources will provide a service award transmittal notice and service recognition pin to department managers based on the service time generated from a standard PPS Decision Support record. If a manager feels that their employee’s service time is incorrect they will need to work with their department payroll coordinator in order to review their payroll records and correct any discrepancies in the PPS. If their research, including confirming time from other state employers (all University of California locations, DOE laboratories, and State of California), reveals that the employee had not worked the appropriate time to be eligible for the service pin the department needs to return the service award transmittal notice and pin to Human Resources.
A new or rehired employee who has employment service credit with another University of California (UC), DOE (Department of Energy) Lab, or State of California service should work with their department payroll staff to obtain verification of prior service. The “Request for Verification of Previous Employment “ form can be used to obtain verification from outside agencies.
Service credit is accepted from the following employers:
- University of California campuses, medical centers, health systems, and Office of the President
- California State University campuses
- Department of Energy laboratories – Los Alamos National Laboratory; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- State of California offices
Should department need assistance in the interpretation of campus policy related to vacation accrual and service awards or if a manager believes that their employee is eligible for a service award and they have not received a transmittal notice they should contact the Employee Relations Consultant assigned to their unit.