PM 31 Service Date
Date: April 23, 2024
Approved by Julia M. McCallin, Associate Vice President for Human Resources, Chief Human Resources Officer
(This supersedes Memo No. 31, dated 10/27/2020)
1.0 Policy
It is the Institute's policy to recognize an employee's service date as the basis for determining:
- Eligibility for employee benefits when a waiting period is required. 1
- Vacation accrual rate.
- Credit for service awards.
2.0 Definitions
Service date is the date an employee begins continuous service, working a regular schedule of twenty (20) hours or more per week.
Continuous service is a period of uninterrupted employment on a benefit basis.
Benefit basis is the status of an employee who works a regular schedule of twenty (20) or more hours per week. (Please refer to the Benefits Handbook for additional information regarding benefit-based employees.)
3.0 End of Continuous Service
Continuous Service ends upon termination of the employee's employment or after being on a continuous leave of absence for greater than 24 months.
4.0 Time Deducted from Service Dates
The following periods of absence are deducted from total years of continuous service for the purpose of determining adjusted service dates:
4.1
Upon return from an unpaid personal leave of absence that exceeds twelve (12) months, an employee's service dates will be moved forward by a number of days equal to the amount of time by which the unpaid personal leave of absence exceeded twelve (12) months. For example, an employee who was on an unpaid personal leave of absence without pay for thirteen (13) months will have the service dates moved forward one month.
4.2
Upon return from a continuous leave of absence that exceeds twenty-four (24) months without a break in employment, an employee's service dates will be moved forward by a number of days equal to the amount of time by which the continuous leave of absence exceeded twenty-four (24) months. For example, an employee who was on a continuous leave of absence for twenty-six (26) months will have the service dates moved forward two months.
4.3
For any period over ninety (90) days that an employee spends in a nonbenefit based status as a result of working a schedule of fewer than twenty (20) hours per week, the employee's service dates will be moved forward for the entire period they are in a non-benefit based status.
4.4
The following periods of absence will not result in an adjustment of service dates:
4.4.2 Time spent on an educational leave.
4.4.3 Time spent on leave for military training*.
4.4.4 Time spent as a reservist in a branch of the U.S. military*.
4.4.5 Time spent in active military service*.
4.4.6 Time spent in legally protected leaves of absence within the time allowed by law.
* As defined in Personnel Memorandum 15-7.
5.0 Establishing Service Credit When Reemployed
The service dates for continuous service purposes for a former Institute employee who is redeployed by the Institute will be established as follows:
5.1
A regular, benefit-based employee who voluntarily resigns after having completed the initial introductory period and is subsequently reemployed within twelve (12) months of the resignation date will retain the original service dates with exception of Retirement Plan benefits and vesting.
5.2
A regular, benefit-based employee who was laid off after having completed the initial introductory period, and is subsequently reemployed within the reemployment period set forth below, will be considered to retain the original service dates:
5.3
A regular, benefit-based employee who has completed the introductory period and who is employed at an affiliate organization as defined below will retain the original Institute service dates, if upon completion of said employment, the employee returns directly* to the Institute as a regular benefit-based employee. For the purpose of this section, the following are organizations which are considered affiliates with the Institute:
- California Association for Research in Astronomy
- Caltech Employees Federal Credit Union
- Caltech Y
- Childrens' Center at Caltech
- Child Education Center
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Stowers Medical Institute
- Thirty Meter Telescope Project (CELT)
- Institute contracted out of country third party payroll vendor
- Carnegie
- Amazon
*Any gap between employment at an affiliate organization as noted above and Institute requires approval by Human Resources.
The provisions in section 5 are intended only to describe the process by which the Institute will establish the service dates for employees who leave the Institute and later return. These provisions should not be considered as guarantees of reemployment, or as indications of preferential treatment as part of the employment process.
6.0 Exceptions
Exceptions to this Personnel Memorandum must be approved by the Associate Vice President for Human Resources for campus employees, or by the Director for Human Resources for employees at JPL, or their designee(s).
1Please refer to the Summary Plan Description, and applicable plan documents for specific information regarding eligibility, service requirements, and others.