You may need to take a leave to attend to various personal matters – from attending jury duty to running for political office. Some of these leaves are paid and others are unpaid.
Jury or court witness duty leave
You are eligible for a paid leave of absence if you are required by law to serve as a juror or witness in any court. You must remit any payment from the Crown to your departmental office.
If you are appearing as a plaintiff or defendant in a civil or criminal action, you will be granted a leave of absence without pay.
If you are faculty and you have been called for jury selection, please contact Faculty Relations for assistance.
Special leave
For BCGEU Okanagan auxiliary employees only, you are entitled to three days of paid leave in a calendar year for any or all of the circumstances listed below:
- birth or adoption of your child,
- serious household or domestic emergency,
- attendance at your citizenship hearing,
- court appearance for your child,
- wedding of your child, and
- moving your household furniture and effects (maximum of one day for each move).
Personal emergency leave
For CUPE 2950 and Management & Professional employees only, you are eligible for up to one day of paid leave per year to deal with a personal emergency, provided you immediately notify your department head.
Citizenship leave
For CUPE 2950 and CUPE 116 employees only, you are eligible for time off with pay to process your Canadian citizenship application. BCGEU Okanagan auxiliary employees are eligible for paid time off as part of their Special Leave (see above). This does not apply to permanent staff of the UBC Aquatic Centre.
Military leave
For CUPE 2950 employees required to attend military training courses, you may take half of the time as a paid leave of absence and half as a deduction from your holidays.
Leave to take political office
You can take an unpaid leave if you are running for political office if you are a member of faculty, an academic executive, a member of BCGEU Okanagan or a member of CUPE 2950.
If you are a faculty member or academic executive, you can take an unpaid leave if you are running for election to public office, provided this does not create serious difficulties for your colleagues or students. See Policy HR2 – Political Leave for information on the conditions of your leave if you are elected to office.
If you are a member of BCGEU Okanagan and you have been nominated as a candidate for election at the federal, provincial or municipal level, you may be granted an unpaid leave to run in the election campaign. If you are elected to full-time office, you will be granted an unpaid leave of up to one year.
Public Duties
You can take an unpaid leave if you are elected or selected for a position within a First Nations Band Council or Indigenous Political organization if you are a member of CUPE 116.
Religious and Cultural Observance
CUPE 116 and CUPE 2950 employees can take time off for religious and cultural observance as an unpaid leave of absence in accordance with Article 18.09 (CUPE 116 Collective Agreement) or Article 30.01 (CUPE 2950 Collective Agreement); vacation in accordance with Article 16.09 (CUPE 116), or Article 27 (CUPE 2950) banked overtime, a day off with pay for working a statutory holiday in accordance with article 15.05 (CUPE 116); equivalent time for working without loss of pay, paid at regular rates, for working a statutory holiday in accordance with Article 26.04 (CUPE 2950); or by rescheduling their work hours subject to operational requirements.
Management & Professional employees can take time off for religious and cultural observances as an unpaid leave of absence, vacation or by re-scheduling their work hours.
Employees should make requests to their manager or administrative head of unit with as much notice as possible; requests will not be unreasonably denied.