# The Attorney General of Texas

December 27, 1978
JOHN L.HILL Attorney General

101tAmmuce, svitc am Dallas.TX.752a? 214/7424944 Honorable LyndonOlson, Jr.

Chairman House Committee on Higher Education State Capitol Austin, Texas 787ll Opinion No.I-I-1305
Re: Vacation entitlement of professional librarians.

Dear Representative Olson:
You have requested an opinion regarding the vacation leave policy for professional librarians at the University of Texas. Youhave submitted the following questions:

Is the plan for compensatory vacation time in existence until November 19’77for professional librarians at The University of Texas at Austin consistent with the current Appropriations Act of the Texas Legislature?
If your answer to question one above is in the negative, must The University of Texas develop alternative terms of appointment so that said vacation benefits can be legally honored while said plan was in effect and had been for eight years and whorelied onsaid plan inentering into employment with The University?
If your answer to question two above is in the negative, must TheUniversity find an alternative method ofcompensating said librarians for their loss ofcompensatory vacation time? University policy has provided the professional librarian ten days of

“compensatory vacation time” in addition to the approximately one day a month which accrued asper the Appropriations Act, article V,section 7. The extra ten days, characterized in some communications as holidays, were usually taken during the Christmas andspring breaks whenclasses were not in session. Librarians thus received approximately 22 days of vacation fin addition to those official state holidays which the university observed. General Appropriations Act, Acts 1977, 65th Leg., ch. 872, art. V, 56, at 3144. This policy, which has been in effect for eight years, was terminated

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lest year. Thii vacation time was represented to the librarians as an element of their employment. We understand that. 22 days of vacation for professional librarians compares with vacation benefits provided by other universities in the country and that it was a substantial condition on which the applicants relied in accepting aposition with the university.
Since the university communications referring to this practice do not make entirely clear whether the ten days of “compensatory vacation time” constitute vacation days or holidays, we will discuss the Appropriations Act provisions regarding both. The current Appropriations Act provides asfollows:

6.

. . . . ’c. Holidays for State employees including hourly wage workers for each year covered by this Act shall be only those specified as follows: The second day in January in 1978andthe first dayofJanuary in 1979,the third Mondayin February, the second day inMarch, the 2lst day ofApril, the last Monday inMay,the fourth day ofJuly, the 27th day of August, the first Monday in September, the second Monday in October, the eleventh day in ‘November, the fourth Thursday inNovember and the Friday immediately following andthe 25th day ofDecember. Inaddition to the preceding holidays, State agencies may close on December 23,and 26, 1977and December 26, 1978,to provide a Christmas holiday period. Holidays falling onSaturdays orSundays shall notbe observed by closing State offices on the preceding or following days except the specific days authorized for a Christmas holiday period. Legal holidays and the Christmas holiday period to be observed byagencies ofhigher education and special schools under the State Board of Education shall not exceed the number of days specified in this Subsection; and the governing boards ofthe various educational institutions may adjust the actual observance ofsuch holidays as will permit efficient academic schedules. Agencies of the State.designated in Articles I,IIand III of this Act shall not substitute the observance of the designated holidays unless the continuing nature of agency operations requires employees to work on a designated holida{;.. Anemployee who isrequired to workand whodoes work’on .eny of the designated holidays shall be entitled to compensating time off to be taken on such day as may be mutually agreed uponbythe employee andhissupervisor.

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. . . . Sec. 7. EMPLOYEES VACATlONS AND LEAVES. a. Employees ofthe State shall, without deduction ofsalary, be entitled to a vacation in each fiscal year. Such entitlement shall beearned inaccordance with the following schedule. [schedule ofhours accrued]
Acts 1977, 65th Leg., ch. 872, art. V,at 3145. Professional librarians are state employees, whether characterized as faculty members or nonteaching personnel. Educ. Code S§51.101, 51.352. Attorney General Opinion S-172(1955); see Attorney General Opinion H-1055(1977). Holiday and vacation time provided them must be consistent with the above provisions of the Appropriations Act. See Attorney General Opinion V-1452(1952). Wefind noexception inthe Act orotherstatute. In our opinion, the policy providing compensatory vacation time is inconsistent with the current Appropriations Act to the extent that it allows librarians to accrue vacation days in excess of the number permitted by the schedule in article V, section 7. However, to the extent that extra time off during the Christmas and spring breaks actually constitutes the observance ofalternate holidays to permit efficient academic schedules, we believe it may be provided consistently with the Appropriations Act. Arule promulgated by the Regents ofthe University ofTexas indicates that employees are entitled to all holidays inthe Appropriations Act, or approved alternate days:

All faculty, classified and other nonteaching personnel are entitled to such holidays as are provided by the Legislature in the then current appropriation bill and as are approved annually by the President of the System and the Board, or alternate holidays approved in the official calendars of the various institutions by the President of the System and the Board. Regents’ Rules and Regulations, Chapter III, § 14. Ofcourse, the total number of legal holidays given byinstitutions ofhigher education may not exceed the number provided in the Appropriations Act. The university may provide ten alternate holidays at Christmas and spring breaks only ifit does not observe ten holidays at the times designated inthe Appropriations Act.
Your final two questions involve action the university might take to honor the purported contracts. Anycontract which iscontrary to state law isvoid, and the university would be unauthorized to provide more days off than the law permits. Accordingly those twoquestions must be answered inthe negative.

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SUMMARY Professional librarians at the University of Texas, as state employees, are entitled only to the vacation leave and holidays provided bythe Appropriations Act.

Attorney General ofTexas 

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