4.9 Termination of Salary Contracts and Separation of Employees from Mines

GOVERNING POLICIES

Section 9, Faculty Handbook – Termination of Employment

PROCEDURE

Termination of faculty is governed by policies defined in Section 9 of the Faculty Handbook. Within these policies, however, when an employee leaves Mines for any reason, it is required that the Department complete a Separation Form. Please note that the Separation Form is required for all employees, including temporary and adjunct faculty, whether they receive benefits or not. 

The “end-date” specified on the Separation Form used for personnel payroll actions specifies the date upon which salary payroll actions against the account number(s) are terminated for an employee.  The “end-date” does not signify termination of employment or resignation by the employee from Mines. On the contrary, for many employees, especially those working on research accounts, departments activate a new HR form for a period immediately beyond the previously expired “end-date” and keep the employee in continuous employment at Mines.

The Separation Form “end-date” does not automatically invokes an employer-employee separation. While salary actions will cease, continuing payment of health premiums by Mines for an eligible faculty member does not. This is advantageous for employees who serve continuously, but whose salary payments must be renewed periodically as funding changes as implemented through successive filings of HR forms with sequential start-end periods. 

However, for employees who are truly terminating employment, if we do not inform them of their rights to continuing benefits through COBRA within 14 days of separation, Mines could face liabilities and penalties. There are also PERA complications: failure to provide timely termination information to PERA has an impact on service dates and final payout of any balances, which in turn can negatively affect the calculation of highest average salary for the individual.

It is therefore required that when an individual is not only ending their salary contract period (per the Payroll Action Form) but is also leaving Mines, that Departments complete the Office of Human Resources Separation Notice. This form alerts the HR Office to the fact that we have an intentional termination of an individual, and triggers the appropriate health, COBRA and PERA separation actions.

Last Revision:

October 5, 2022