All staff, non-tenured faculty, and non-tenure track faculty are employed "at will." This means those individuals may decide to end their employment with the University at any time for any reason or no reason, and the University has the right to terminate the employment of those individuals at any time for any reason or no reason.
These policies do not create a contract, and the University reserves the right to modify any provisions in these policies, or to discontinue all or a part of these policies, at any time. These policies and any amendments, deletions, or additions, are effective on the day posted to this website, unless expressly stated otherwise in the posting.
Unless expressly stated, all policies exclude faculty and student workers.
"Regular" employees are in budgeted, staff positions and may be either full-time or part-time. Full-time means 1.0 "full-time equivalent" (FTE). Part-time means .53 FTE (or greater) for staff and administrators and .50 FTE (or greater) for faculty and those employees on a 40-hour work week. Regular employees are eligible for benefits. The following employee groups are regular employees.
"Exempt" staff are executive, administrative, or professional employees of the University as defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act and are exempt from state and federal minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. Exempt staff are paid on a salary basis for work performed and are not eligible for paid overtime.
"Non-exempt" staff are employees of the University as defined by the state and federal law and are not exempt from the minimum wage and overtime requirements. Non-exempt staff are paid an hourly wage for work performed and are eligible for paid overtime.
Additional information about the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Some exempt employees may hold faculty rank and also serve in exempt, administrative non-faculty positions. Those employees are subject to all terms and conditions applicable to exempt non-faculty employees. In addition, these individuals may have certain rights, through tenure, to continued employment as a faculty member. Those rights affect only the individual's status as a faculty member.
Union employees are those University employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
The following employee groups are not eligible for benefits.
"Temporary" employees are hired on a temporary basis for a specific period of time (e.g., for projects or interim assignments). Temporary employees work intermittently and less than 1040 hours per year.
"On-call" employees work an uncertain schedule usually on an irregular or on-call basis. On-call employees are paid an hourly wage.
Student employees are hired through the Student Financial Services Office or the School of Law Financial Aid Office in accordance with the policies and procedures of those offices. Student employees are paid through the payroll system as a student employee and are compensated on an hourly basis. For more information, please view the Student Financial Services website.
The University also engages the services of consultants and independent contractors (non-employees) on a short-term, temporary, or part-time basis. A consultant or independent contractor is not an employee. The IRS has strict criteria for determining whether an individual is an independent contractor or an employee. Information on these criteria can be found from the Guidelines for Determining Independent Contractor Status and the Office of the Controller's website.
Unless otherwise approved by a Vice President, contact the HR office before entering into a contract with a consultant. Information on paying contractors can be found on the Office of the Controller’s website.
Volunteers are welcome at the University and provide valuable services. A volunteer agreement is required and a record of volunteer hours must be maintained and reported to payroll for liability insurance purposes.
Seattle University employees may volunteer or otherwise perform services for the University on an unpaid basis if all the conditions listed below are met.
"Active" employees are working on regularly assigned or scheduled days.