Staff Senate Newsletter • April 10, 2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates
- To stay up to date on UNT's response to COVID-19, see healthalerts.unt.edu.
- For information related to staff, go HERE.
City of Denton
On Monday, April 6, the Denton City Council voted to adopt a new Order of Council to supersede previous orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic. At Monday’s emergency meeting, in accordance with Gov. Greg Abbott’s Executive Order GA-14, issued on March 31, 2020, Council adopted the Stay-At-Home order for the city of Denton and authorized additional funding to assist individuals and families in need.
The declaration of disaster order shall be in effect beginning at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 6 and continuing through 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, April 30 or until otherwise acted upon by the Council. For more information, see City of Denton's City Announcements and Press Releases.
HR Dependent Care Benefits
Due to COVID-19, changes may occur in an employee’s Dependent Care situation. Employees may decrease or stop their Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (DCRA) election as this is considered a “Family Status Change – Significant change in cost or coverage.”
Employees have 30 days from the date the daycare closed or the date that a shelter-in-place order was put into effect, whichever is greater, to make a change to their DCRA election. Employees will not be allowed to re-enroll in the benefit when the daycare re-opens if coverage is dropped. An employee can re-elect this benefit during Summer Enrollment and the benefit will go into effect 09/01/2020.
See Update Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts for more details.
And, contact hrbenefits@untsystem.edu if you have any questions or concerns.
HR I-9 Process Update
Despite the current circumstances, the process for completing Form I-9 has not changed, and we are not allowed to accept electronic copies of IDs. This means that all I-9's must continue to be completed in-person for new hires, as well as for reverification of expiring documents.
For details please see the Staff Senate Announcements for HR I-9 Process Update.
ODE Training
Here are some upcoming Organizational Development & Engagement (ODE) live training opportunities via Zoom. Click on the title to be directed to course description and registration link in UNT World Learning.
- Progressive Discipline - Wednesday April 15, 2020 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- How to Handle Change - Thursday, April 16, 2020 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Coaching for Performance - April 21, 2020 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
- Emotional Intelligence - Thursday, April 23, 2020 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
All live Zoom training is recorded and posted on the ODE website a week later under the heading Pre-Recorded Webinars.
For more webinars and other virtual resources, please visit their website.
Diversity and Inclusion Training
Looking for some engaging professional development opportunities while working from home? Check out Diversity and Inclusion’s recommended webinars and Tele-Talks found HERE!
Going Above & Beyond: Stories from UNT’s COVID-19 response
If you know of someone who is going above and beyond, please share their information with untpresident@unt.edu so we can give them a shoutout.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be recorded and made available to staff via Zoom. Please check back for details.
For meeting agendas and minutes, click HERE.
Contact Us!
If you have an article, announcement or suggestion relating to this newsletter, contact Lisa Cuevas or staffsenate@unt.edu to have it included.
If you have any other questions, please contact your Staff Senator or staffsenate@unt.edu.