The Employee Separation Payment Authorization (ESPA) form must be completed when an employee separates from University employment. This form authorizes payment of unused annual leave, unused compensatory time, and also authorizes the payment of sick leave at retirement.
The Online Work/Leave System will automatically generate the ESPA form when an employee’s OWLS record is ended due to separation.
The ESPA form generated through OWLS will automatically populate appropriate leave balances and employee information. A few items will still need to be entered on the worksheet prior to submitting the finalized form to Payroll.
A completed form must be sent to the Payroll office to ensure payment to the employee of the applicable hours.
The ESPA form may be regenerated at any time through the calendar screen of the ended record.
To regenerate the ESPA form, open the employee’s prior record and take the following steps:

At the time an employee retires from employment, or dies while still employed, the full balance of accrued sick leave hours is converted to payment at the rate of 25%. For retiring employees, the cash value is applied to the tax-free medical expense account that may be used by the retiree and eligible dependents to pay medical expenses after retirement. For more information about the medical expense account, please visit the VEBA page.