Long-term absence (LTA) in Master Rotations and One-time Schedules

In a Master Rotation (MR) or One-time Schedule (OTS), employees that are assigned to rows can be put on long-term absence (LTA). When scheduling employees using MR or OTS, employees are typically put on LTA for long-duration leave such as short-term or long-term disability, maternity leave, or military leave. This allows the scheduler to reassign all the vacant shifts to a different employee at once. Short-term leaves such as vacation or sick leave are more conveniently managed using the ASV or Time Off Planner, as the vacant shifts can be filled through the relief process.

Putting an employee on LTA marks the employee as unavailable for a specified time period in the MR or OTS. Any shifts that were assigned to the employee during the LTA period are marked as LTA shifts using the specified leave code. Unassigned shifts are created for the LTA shifts and are added to a new unassigned row segment. Other employees can be assigned to the unassigned row to cover the shifts.

Employees can be put on LTA on an MR or OTS that is in any status. If the OTS schedule is based on an OTS template, the LTA dates may overlap multiple OTS schedules that were created from the same OTS template. The LTA is applied to other OTS schedules that are within the specified date range. This is similar to how employee assignment changes can also affect multiple OTS schedules.

See Employee assignments in One-time Schedules for an example of an employee assignment change affecting multiple OTS schedules.

LTA and employee balances in Master Rotations and One-time Schedules

LTA periods created in an MR or OTS can consume employee balances. If the specified leave code requires balance to use, that balance is deducted from the employee for all shifts during the LTA period. Employee balances are checked when processing the MR or OTS to ensure employees have sufficient balances to cover the LTA shifts. The schedule cannot be processed if any employee has insufficient balance to cover all of their LTA shifts.