A. Guidelines for voluntary termination

1.   Employees are expected to give advance notice of at least two weeks when leaving the university.

2.    During the notice period, staff may be required to take accrued vacation.

3.    See Policy 7.3, Terminal Pay, for a description of terminal pay benefits for an employee who terminates from university employment.

B. Guidelines for involuntary termination

1.    Prior to deciding whether or not to terminate an employee, the department head must grant the employee an opportunity to receive and present information about the issues and ask questions. (See Policy 6.2, Progressive Discipline.)

2.    Departments must clear the final written notice of termination with Human Resources Administration before sending the notice to the employee.

3.    When the university terminates an employee from employment for just cause, a notice period is not required.

4.    See Policy 7.3, Terminal Pay, for a description of terminal pay benefits for an employee who terminates from university employment.

C. Continuation of health care coverage

Procedure

D. How to process terminations

1.  When the termination date is determined, a department head must initiate the appropriate HRMS document.  The action reason must be indicated on the e-doc with an explanation of the reason for the termination added to the “notes” section of the e-doc.      

a.   For assistance in determining the action reason, see the document, “Termination/Separation Reasons” at http://www.indiana.edu/%7Euhrs/policies/termcodes.pdf

2.   The effective date of termination is the day after the last day on the job.  In the following cases, the effective date of termination is the day after:

a.   The end of a leave of absence or family and medical leave of absence preceding termination

b.   The end of an absence caused by an injury on the job preceding termination

c.   The last day of using income protection time preceding termination

d.   The date of death

e.   The final day of a suspension from work with or without pay, pending a decision to terminate for just cause and is subsequently terminated

3.   Payroll determines the terminal payment for accrued time off for which an employee is eligible. Final payment is made on the next regular payday following the termination date. (See the exception below.)

a.   Employees who have been involuntarily terminated or separated due to a reduction in force shall have unpaid wages become due within three work days upon request of the employee.  A special voucher must be sent to payroll within one work day of the employee’s request and payroll must make payment to the employee within two workdays of receipt of the voucher.

4.   Departments are to obtain a permanent forwarding address.

5.   Departments are to instruct the employee to contact the campus human resources department concerning the status of benefit programs.

6.   The supervisor should ensure that (1) the employee returns all university property (keys, uniforms, tools, information, etc.) and (2) the employee's e-mail account, long distance authorization, university credit cards, and other similar items are cancelled as appropriate.

Revised July 2006

Numerical Index