Leaves & Personal Time Off (PTO)
Summary of Leaves
There are three main paid leave pools, Short-Term Leave (STL), Long-Term Leave (LTL), and Personal Time Off (PTO).
Short-Term Leave (STL): All ASEs, whether salaried or hourly, receive 2 days/quarter or 3 days/semester of Short-Term Leave. If an ASE works in the summer, they receive 2 days of Short-Term Leave. GSRs receive 1 day of Short-Term Leave every 1.5 months.
Long-Term Leave (LTL): All salaried employees – ASEs and GSRs – receive 8 weeks of Long-Term Leave per year.
Personal Time Off (PTO): GSRs receive 1 day of PTO per month of appointment length, front-loaded to the beginning of the appointment. For example, a GSR with a year-long appointment receives 12 days of PTO, while a GSR with a quarter-long appointment receives 3 days of PTO. PTO rolls over to a maximum of 18 days. For more information on PTO Rollover, scroll down to the PTO Rollover section below.
The table below shows the different leaves available to workers and how the different leave pools can be used towards them.
GSR PTO Rollover
GSRs won the right to roll over Personal Time Off (PTO) between consecutive GSR appointments up to a maximum of 18 days in the 2026 contract beginning in Fall of 2026. To make sure your PTO rolls over, follow the instructions below:
If there is no gap in dates between your appointments, your remaining PTO days will automatically roll over into the new appointment. No action is necessary.
If there is a gap in dates between your appointments, you must email your PI within 30 days of the start of the new appointment to request that your PTO roll over.
PTO cannot be rolled over between non-consecutive GSR appointments or GSR appointments with a break in service greater than 30 days.
Example: A GSR finishes one appointment with 6 unused PTO days and begins their next year-long GSR appointment with no break. Those 6 days roll over into the 12 days from their new appointment for a total of 18 available PTO days.
Example: A GSR finishes one appointment with 2 unused PTO days and begins their next quarter-long GSR appointment after a 10 day break in service between appointments. They write to their PI to request a PTO rollover. The 2 unused days from the previous appointment roll over into the 3 days from their new appointment for a total of 5 available PTO days.
Immigration Leave
ASEs/GSRs at UC have access to up to three weeks of immigration leave per year, the strongest immigration leave benefit of any graduate student employees in the country. You can use immigration leave when you have to travel outside of the United States to apply for an F-1 or J-1 visa or to seek other forms of immigration relief.
Using Your Immigration Leave
To use the leave, you must give at least thirty days’ notice to your supervisor and receive a verification from the campus International Students and Scholars Office (or equivalent) that the travel is for a qualifying reason. Immigration leave must be taken in one-week chunks.
To receive pay during an immigration leave, you can use the following leave entitlements. Otherwise, immigration leave is unpaid.
One week of Long-Term Leave
All available Short-Term Leave (2 days/quarter or 3 days/semester)
For GSRs only: Personal Time Off (1 day per month of appointment length, i.e. 12 days for a year-long appointment)