External Professional Activities for Pay (EPAP)

Pursuant to the Board of Governors’ Policy on External Professional Activities, we are reminding all EHRA Faculty and EHRA Non-Faculty employees that External Professional Activities for Pay (EPAP) requests for any activities that are currently known to occur in the time period of July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, should be submitted into the online Activities, Interests, and Relationships (AIR) management system (air.unc.edu).

External Professional Activities for Pay (EPAP) means any activity that is:

• Not included within one’s University employment responsibilities.
• Performed for any entity, public or private, other than the University employer.
• Undertaken for compensation.
• Based upon the professional knowledge, experience and abilities of the EHRA employee.

A few reminders with regard to this policy:

·     All EHRA employees at an FTE of .50 or greater are subject to this policy.

·     EPAP requests should be submitted at least 10 days in advance of the activity taking place. For multiple year projects, a new EPAP request must be submitted each fiscal year.

·     Generally, EPAPs must take place outside of normal working hours as established by the employee’s department. If an EPAP must be performed during scheduled work hours as determined by the department, the time should be taken as vacation or other appropriate non-paid time, as approved in advance by the department.

·     There is no entitlement or guarantee to a specific or set percentage of time for EPAP activities. Percent of effort is capped by the UNC System Office at 20% of University time for employees at 1.0 FTE.

·     For purposes of EPAPs, equity for you or your spouse/partner is a form of compensation, and therefore any activity with an entity that includes equity ownership requires an EPAP to be filed.

Note: Information on your EPAP hours now may be viewed via your AIR profile, available through the air.unc.edu website.

For more information, please review:

·   EPAP FAQs on the Provost Office website.

·   University’s EPAP policy page for more details about EPAP and related policies and regulations.

Questions should be directed as follows:

·     Policy for EHRA Non-Faculty employees: Vanessa Ragland, Senior Director of EHRA Personnel, at vanessa_ragland@unc.edu.

·     Policy for EHRA Faculty: Lachonya Thompson, Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs, at lachonya@unc.edu.

·     Processing EPAPs in the AIR system: Roberto Cofresi, Office of University Counsel, at 843-9953, or email epap@unc.edu.

Related policies

UNC-Chapel Hill Policy on Individual Conflicts of Interest and Commitment, the University, through the Office of University Counsel, collects and reports External Professional Activities for Pay as required in the Board of Governors’ Policy on Conflict of Commitment, Regulations on External Professional Activities for Pay by Faculty and Non-Faculty EHRA Employees.

Special Employment Policies and Procedures

We would like to take this opportunity to remind HR Officers, HR Representatives and employees about the following special employment policies and procedures.

Important: HR Representatives must ensure that the proper documentation is submitted to and approved by the Office of Human Resources in advance of the employee beginning additional or dual employment, external professional activities for pay, secondary employment as well as supplemental pay.

Additional Employment (SHRA)

Applies when a permanent full-time SHRA employee (regularly scheduled 40 hours each work week) who is normally appointed to one position at one established rate of pay, is needed to perform additional work for another position on a temporary, part-time basis.

Additional employment involves work within the University beyond the permanent full-time employees regularly scheduled 40 hours and outside their:

• Home department or organizational unit.
• Regular work schedule.
• Regularly assigned responsibilities.

Additional employment is limited to situations in which the employee possesses specialized knowledge, skills, and abilities not readily available in the University’s recruitment area. Additional employment can be used only for an emergency or one-time, fixed-term assignment with a specified beginning and ending date (not over several semesters, for example) and not for any continuing need.

Further, it cannot conflict with the employee’s regularly assigned full-time SHRA duties. Please note FLSA exempt employees must be paid a flat rate for the assignment and can no longer be paid on an hourly basis.

Under certain circumstances, additional employment may involve an employee who is filling a temporary teaching assignment. However, there are several conditions that apply in this situation. SHRA non-exempt employees may not be appointed to a temporary teaching assignment.

The employee and their department must submit an Additional Employment Request Form and obtain approval from OHR/Employment & Staffing before engaging in additional employment.

Please refer to the Additional Employment Policy for more information.

Dual Employment (SHRA, EHRA Non-Faculty and Faculty)

Applies when a permanent SHRA, EHRA Non-Faculty or faculty employee, regardless of FLSA status, is needed on a temporary and/or part-time basis by another State agency (except a local Board of Education, the Community College System, UNC Health, or city/county government entity).

Dual employment is limited to situations in which the employee possesses specialized knowledge, skills, and/or abilities not readily available in the requesting State agency’s recruitment area. Dual employment is used for a critical need or a one-time, fixed-term assignment with a specified beginning and ending date. In either case, dual employment must not exceed 12 months and cannot conflict with the employee’s regularly assigned duties and outside of normal work hours.

The employee must submit a Dual Employment Request Form and receive approval from OHR before the employee engages in dual employment. All SHRA requests should be sent to OHR/Employment & Staffing via email at specialemployment@unc.edu. EHRA Non-Faculty and faculty requests should be sent to OHR/EHRA Human Resources office.

Please review the dual employment computer-based training (CBT) module (try another browser if the CBT does not open) and refer to the Dual Employment Policy for more information.

Secondary Employment (SHRA)

Applies when a permanent full-time University employee plans to engage in secondary employment with another employer that is not a State agency or University. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that an employee’s secondary employment does not have an adverse effect on the employee’s primary employment with the State and does not create a conflict of interest.

An employee must submit a Secondary Employment Request Form to their supervisor and receive an acknowledgement that OHR/Employment & Staffing has received the request form before engaging in secondary employment.

Each January, employees who are continuing secondary employment must submit an updated Secondary Employment Request Form to their supervisor and OHR/Employment & Staffing.

Please refer to the Secondary Employment for SHRA Employees policy and the Secondary Employment for SHRA Employees Procedure for more information.

Supplemental Pay (EHRA Faculty and Non-Faculty)

Applies to all permanent and temporary University EHRA employees (faculty and EHRA Non-Faculty) to address temporary increases in responsibility or significant and substantial duties performed under circumstances outside of normal work hours. This compensation may be used only to address duties that are clearly exceptional to the employee’s regular position.

Requests must be submitted and approved by all required parties, including the applicable central office, in advance of any supplemental pay being communicated to the employee or any added work being performed.

·     To request overload pay, use the EHRA Overload Pay Request Form.

·     To request a salary supplement, use the Non-Faculty Salary Adjustment/Supplemental Form or Faculty Salary Increase Request Form (aka “Rainbow Form”).

Please refer to the policy on Supplemental Pay for EHRA Employees for more information.

Questions?

Please refer any questions to the following contacts:

• SHRA: Talent Acquisition Partner at (919) 843-2300.
• EHRA Non-Faculty: EHRA Human Resources Consultant at (919) 843-2300.
• Faculty: Lachonya Thompson, Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs at (919) 962-1092.

Thank you,

Lachonya Thompson
Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs

Linc Butler
Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and Academic Personnel