Service Credit - Vacation Accrual & Service Awards

Service Credit Eligibility

The information provided below pertains to service credit used for vacation accrual purposes. For information regarding retirement service credit, please refer to Retirement FAQ.

Vacation service credit is the sum of all months of qualifying service. A month of qualifying service is a month on pay status at 50% time or more. Service need not be continuous to be counted. Newly hired career employees or employees that were appointed or converted from a limited to a career position are given the opportunity to provide Staff Human Resources (SHR) with information on prior service. Prior qualifying service includes career staff, casual restricted student, and academic status at the following agencies:

*Please note: Vacation accruals from the County and City agencies do not qualify to be transferred. If you are unsure if your service is eligible, you can submit a ticket/ inquiry to UCPath via the “Ask UCPath” yellow button located on the top right corner of your dashboard.

Transfer of Service Credits:

If an employee has prior Service Credit from a previous Institution and/or State Agency, the employee/HR Contact will submit a ticket in UCPath to request the credit update.

Once submitted, UCPath will then update milestone/sick & leave accruals. UCPath will auto-generate an employee’s newly achieved Service Credit Milestone which is triggered by the employees' Job Code. Their Leave & Sick Accrual will also be updated automatically in UCPath once the system has updated their milestone.

Follow the instructions below to view your Service Credit balance in UCPath:

UCPath > Employee Actions > Accruals and Leave Balance

*Please note: UCPath does not alert the employee and/or Department HR Contact when this milestone is met.

Periods of Leave

Periods of leave with pay that are included when calculating length of service include: military leave from the same institution, and leave of absences with pay (e.g., extended sick leave) for an employee who is unable to work due to a work-incurred injury or illness compensable under California’s Workers Compensation Act.

Leaves of absence without pay are not included in service credit calculations. But an employee can make a service credit purchase (formerly known as “buyback”) to the UCRP to obtain service credit for periods of temporary laid off or an approved leave of absence. For more information, please refer to the UCRP Service Credit Purchase Guide

Vacation Service Credit may not correspond to the amount of service credit one has in the UCRP or to one’s seniority points for layoff. (See definitions below)

Service Credit Types and Definitions

Vacation Service Credit: Used for determining vacation accrual rate and time towards service awards for career staff employees.

Seniority: Used for indefinite layoff and indefinite reduction in time purposes.

Generally, seniority is calculated by full time-equivalent months (or hours) of University service. Employment prior to a break in service is not counted. (See Personnel Policies for Staff Members (PPSM) or Union Agreements.) Contact your ELR Analyst with questions.

Staff Human Resources Responsibilities

Change in Vacation Leave Accrual Rate

SHR tracks the employee's qualifying service credit.

In addition to receiving a Service Award, employees may be eligible for a higher accrual rate for vacation as they accumulate service. SHR contacts the department when the employee has reached a service anniversary date.

Please refer to the Factor Leave Chart for accrual rate changes and Factor Leave Accrual for more information regarding factor leave. For questions, please contact your Timekeeper.

For questions regarding vacation service credit: Email service-credit-help@ucsc.edu

Please note: emails will be responded to within five business days.