Eligibility

  • Beginning September 25, 2023, each eligible employee shall receive one floating holiday per calendar year.
  • The floating holiday is available to eligible employees immediately upon hire. 
  • Student employees, graduate students, and short-term workers are not eligible for a floating holiday.

Hours Requirements

  • A full-time employee shall receive eight (8) hours of floating holiday.
  • A part-time employee shall receive prorated floating holiday hours based on FTE.
  • A floating holiday shall not exceed eight hours per calendar year, prorated based on FTE.

Availability

  • A floating holiday provides an employee with one scheduled day off with pay per calendar year.
  • An employee’s ability to use the floating holiday is limited to one scheduled day per calendar year.
  • Employees must use all of their floating holiday hours on one day. An employee may not divide floating holiday hours across multiple days or use less than the full floating holiday earned.
  • An employee who works in two or more positions at the same or different agencies shall receive one annual floating holiday based on their primary position, regardless of the number of positions held.

Work and Leave Use Requirements

  • An employee shall not perform work, record time worked, receive holiday pay, or bank holiday hours on a scheduled floating holiday.
  • If an employee works on a day originally scheduled as a floating holiday, the day reverts to a regularly scheduled working day. The employee and supervisor shall reschedule the floating holiday for another date.
  • All employees must record use of the floating holiday on their timesheet in the MSU time entry system, MyMSUB. No more hours may be recorded than employee is eligible for.

Faculty Usage

*See more information below regarding timesheet information for the Floating Holiday for faculty. 

  • Academic department chairs must ensure that use of the floating holiday by faculty or staff in a college would not disrupt the educational experience of students. For example, the use of a floating holiday cannot result in the cancellation of a class, office hours, lab, or studio sessions, advising, supervision of graduate students or any other instructional time.
  • Faculty represented by the MSU Billings Faculty Association or Montana Two-Year Faculty Association should use the floating holiday as an additional personal day and should follow the protocol established in the appropriate collective bargaining agreement.
  • Part-time faculty can refer to “Hours Requirements” above.

Request Process

  • Employees must request a floating holiday in writing and in advance to their supervisor. Employees must schedule the time off in collaboration with their supervisor and according to department procedures.
  • A supervisor may deny an employee’s floating holiday request to meet workload deadlines, maintain required staffing levels, maintain an employee’s regular hours per workweek, avoid disruption of instruction or education, avoid accrual of overtime or compensatory time, or other business reasons.

Special Situations

  • If an employee terminates employment after using a floating holiday and is subsequently rehired in the same calendar year, the employee shall not receive an additional floating holiday in that same calendar year.
  • If a part-time employee uses a floating holiday and subsequently becomes a full-time employee in the same calendar year, the employee shall not receive additional floating holiday hours in that same year.

Payout and Rollover Prohibitions

  • Unused floating holidays expire at the end of each calendar year.
  • Floating holidays do not roll-over or accrue after December 31 of each calendar year.
  • Floating holiday is not compensable. Floating holidays shall not be cashed or paid out to an employee at any time.

FACULTY FLOATING HOLIDAY INFORMATION

MSU Billings is the only campus in the four-campus system that has a true floating holiday for faculty, as the other 3 campuses selected a specific day.  This requires the MSUB Payroll Office to manually track the floating holiday hours for faculty separate from Banner. 

Full-time faculty at MSUB receive 1 day for the floating holiday, however, due to the way that faculty hours are calculated in Banner, you will see your floating holiday hours shown in MyMSUB as 6 hours (University Campus) and 5.23 (City College).

How does the floating holiday appear in MyMSUB for faculty and why?

UNIVERSITY CAMPUS FACULTY – 26 pay

The faculty on the MSUB University Campus is based on 1560 hours, which calculates to 6 hours.  Since MyMSUB pulls the floating holiday hours from the “Hours per Day” field in Banner, the floating hours for University Campus faculty show as 6 hours instead of 8 hours (Full-time non-faculty are based on 2080 hours, and their hours per day calculates to 8 hours). Full-time faculty members still get the “full day” it is just based on the 6 hours so there isn’t overpayment for the floating holiday. 

UNIVERSITY CAMPUS FACULTY – 20 pay

The faculty on the MSUB University Campus is based on 1560 hours, which calculates to 7.8 hours.  Since MyMSUB pulls the floating holiday hours from the “Hours per Day” field in Banner, the floating hours for University Campus faculty show as 7.8 hours instead of 8 hours (Full-time non-faculty are based on 2080 hours, and their hours per day calculates to 8 hours). Full-time faculty members still get the “full day” it is just based on the 7.8 hours so there isn’t overpayment for the floating holiday. 

CITY COLLEGE FACULTY – 26 pay

The faculty on the MSUB City College Campus is based on 1360 hours , which calculates to 5.23 hours.  Since MyMSUB pulls the floating holiday hours from the “Hours per Day” field in Banner, the floating hours for City College faculty show as 5.23 hours instead of 8 hours (Full-time non-faculty are based on 2080 hours, and their hours per day calculates to 8 hours).  Full-time faculty members still get the “full day” it is just based on the 5.23 hours so there isn’t overpayment for the floating holiday. 

CITY COLLEGE FACULTY – 20 pay

The faculty on the MSUB City College Campus is based on 1360 hours , which calculates to 6.8 hours.  Since MyMSUB pulls the floating holiday hours from the “Hours per Day” field in Banner, the floating hours for City College faculty show as 6.8 hours instead of 8 hours (Full-time non-faculty are based on 2080 hours, and their hours per day calculates to 8 hours).  Full-time faculty members still get the “full day” it is just based on the 6.8 hours so there isn’t overpayment for the floating holiday. 

All MSUB University and City College full-time faculty receive a full day for their floating holiday.

MyMSUB instructions for recording use of your floating holiday:

Floating holiday hours can only be taken for 1 day and are not broken up.  Use of the floating holiday in MyMSUB should be recorded by putting a note in the comments section “Floating holiday used on MM/DD/YYYY.”  Please also see the “Full Time Faculty Timesheet Instructions” available on the Payroll Intranet page.