The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (“the university”) recognizes there may be times when the standard work week is not optimal for the university and/or its employees, and there may be benefits to allowing employees to use flexible work arrangements such as flextime or telecommuting. The university particularly supports using flexible work options to help employees manage the competing demands of work and family.
Standard Work Week: The standard work week of the university is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods, commencing at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and ending at midnight Friday. The work day is normally a period of eight hours worked within a 24-hour period. The normal work day is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. (Refer to HOOP Policy 5.07 Shift Differential Pay.)
For questions regarding this policy, contact Human Resources – Employee Relations department.
At the discretion of the department head/supervisor and within the constraints of federal and state law, flexible work arrangements may be used by employees when appropriate. Some flexible work arrangements available include flextime (e.g., compressed work weeks or flexible working hours) and telecommuting (i.e., work from home or off site). In addition, supervisors are not obligated to authorize daily breaks for employees, but may do so at their discretion. See http://www.uthouston.edu/worklife/worklife/flextime.html for information pertaining to flex time guidelines. See http://publicaffairs.uth.tmc.edu/worklife/worklife/telecommuting.html for information pertaining to telecommuting.
The university must be open between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday including the noon hour, and must maintain the eight-hour day and the 40-hour week. Within these criteria, supervisors and employees should work together in evaluating the appropriateness of a flexible work arrangement for their area. However, it is the responsibility of the supervisor to periodically review the arrangements to ensure they continue to meet the university's needs and comply with all state and federal regulations.
A supervisor may establish a work week different than the standard work week, for an individual employee or group of employees, as long as the change is not designed to evade the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). For employees working a non-traditional schedule, this information should be recorded and maintained in departmental files. This documentation is especially critical in the case of non-exempt employees since it is used as the basis to determine overtime.(Refer to HOOP Policy 5.05 Overtime Pay and to HOOP Policy 5.06 Compensatory Time Off, or contact Human Resources for information regarding pertinent regulations.)
Updated 01/05, 11/07, 05/09