• Columbia Home
• Columbia Directory

• Give Feedback
• Site Map
• Search the Toolkit

Back to Hiring Overview

• Short-term Casual and Temporary Hiring Guide
  • Introduction
  • The Policy
  • Short-term Casuals
  • Agency Temps
  • Temporary University Employees
  • Students

• Why hire a short-term casual?
• What are the requirements?
• Do short-term casuals receive benefits?
• How does one hire a short-term casual?
• What are the payment procedures?

Why hire a short-term casual?

A "casual" employee is generally hired for a special project or as a short term replacement.

What are the requirements?

In addition to the information in this booklet, you should also consult any applicable collective bargaining agreements (or contact the Office of Employee and Labor Relations). These rules do not apply to casuals who are full-time Columbia students; hiring and payroll for students is managed through Center for Career Education.

• The hiring department is charged fringe expenses for the cost of the employment of non-student casuals.

• The 560-Hour Limit: Short-term casual employment is limited to a maximum of 560 hours in a rolling twelve-month period (unless the employee is replacing a specific employee on an authorized leave of absence, in which case an employee may continue on the casual payroll until the regular employee returns). When the 560-hour limit is reached, a casual must either be hired as a regular employee or terminated. Any casual employee who has worked the maximum number of hours in a rolling 12-month period may not be employed as a casual anywhere within the University.

• If a department chooses to hire a short-term casual as a regular or temporary university employee, all normal Columbia University policies and procedures for hiring new employees apply, including posting of the position (for officer positions of more than 12 months and for support-staff positions of more than 4 months), interviewing of applicants, and submission of any applicable monitoring paperwork. Therefore, departments must plan in advance to post the vacancy with sufficient time to complete the hiring process. Failure to do so may result in the casual employee being removed from the payroll in the interim.

• Enforcing the 560-Hour Limit: Payroll tracks the casual payroll and provides bi-weekly reports to the Office of Employee and Labor Relations indicating which employees on the casual payroll have accrued 350 hours in a calendar year. Employee and Labor Relations then notifies the department or school, along with the casual employee, that the 350-hour mark has been reached (see sample Notification), and that the employee will not be permitted to work more than 560 hours without prior Human Resources approval.

• Exceptions may be sought by contacting the Assistant Vice President of Employee and Labor Relations—1220 Interchurch, MC 7710, fax: (212) 870-2810, e-mail: hrelr@columbia.edu —for all positions other than those located at the Medical Center Campus. Requests for exceptions at the Medical Center Campus will be considered by the Assistant Vice President of Human Resources (HSD) in the Black Building, Room 112, fax: (212) 305-5728.

• Collective bargaining agreements: The casual payroll policy does not change the collective bargaining agreement limitations defining when an employee becomes a regular employee. Thus, as long as the employee works at least the minimum number of hours (20 per week except 10 per week for 1199), the employee is subject to the collective bargaining agreement after four months if the job is a union-represented position.

• Pay: Where the job performed by the casual employee is comparable to an existing position, the casual employee's salary must be no less than the minimum pay grade for that position. However, if work is not substantial enough to be classified according to current pay grades (e.g. stuffing envelopes), you may consider rates outside of the range. If you need guidance, contact your HROS representative on Morningside Campus or your Human Resources representative on the Health Sciences Campus.

• Retirees: As with other short-term casuals, a Columbia retiree who returns to employment with the University on a casual basis is subject to the 560-hour limit. However, because a retiree cannot be rehired as a regular employee, he or she must be terminated after working 560 hours in a twelve-month period. (Retirees who wish to teach or provide research services must have part time appointments, and therefore are not covered by this policy.)
  
  In some cases, a retiree's casual employment may affect their Social Security benefits. Any questions about this can be answered by the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213 or on the web at http://www.ssa.gov

• Current employees cannot work as casuals in another department without approval by the Assistant Vice President for Employee and Labor Relations.

Do short-term casuals receive benefits?

Short-term casual employees are not eligible for University benefits. However, if a short-term casual in a support-staff position is hired as a regular or temporary university employee for the same type of support-staff position, and if this immediately follows a period of unbroken service, that period of service on the casual payroll counts towards benefits eligibility (but not for retroactive benefits). This applies to both full- and part-time casual employees. (This does not apply to officers.)

How does one hire a short-term casual?

The hiring school or department must ensure that the attached forms are completed in their entirety and forwarded to the respective departments. Forms should be completed prior to the employee's start date, but not later than the day the employee begins working.

For all schools and departments except the Medical Center:

• Send the following forms to the Payroll Department within three days of the date the employee begins work
  • Casual Employment Form
    
  • Casual Employment Agreement
    
  • I-9 Form
    
  • W-4 Form
    
  • NYS 2104 or 2104E
    
  • NYC 2104E
    
  • Social Security Application Receipt when appropriate
    
  • Tax Treaty Claim Form (8233) when appropriate
    
  • Direct Deposit Authorization if employee requests

For the Medical Center:

• Casual Employment Form
  
• Casual Employment Agreement
  
• I-9 Form
  
• W-4 Form
  
• NYS 2104 or 2104E
  
• NYC 2104E
  
• Social Security Application Receipt when appropriate
  
• Tax Treaty Claim Form (8233) when appropriate
  
• Direct Deposit Authorization if employee requests
  
  The Business Office will forward the documentation as appropriate to Payroll and to the Medical Center Human Resources Office.

What are the payment procedures?

Short-term casuals are paid for exact hours worked, and pay is processed through submission of a special form (ZT). Rate of pay and job duties are established locally, and should be determined by reference to any comparable union-represented positions. For all support-staff and administrative-officer positions, each school or department must report actual hours worked on the ZT form for each employee. Employees may not be shown as "zero" hours of work.

Casual employees who work over eight hours a day or over 40 hours a week must be paid overtime, even if the position would otherwise be considered exempt.

All instructional employees must be appointed on the regular payroll except for adjunct faculty and certain instructors in Continuing Education and Special Programs (who, if paid on a per course basis, don't need to have their hours reported).