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lose vacation time due to illness
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lose vacation time due to illness
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We have a small company (10) and a policy of 40 hours paid vacacation and 40 hours personal days for full time employees (average of 144 hours worked per month). We have an employee that has been a fu
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Forums » Topic Forums » Benefits & Compensation » lose vacation time due to illness
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lose vacation time due to illness
posted at 8/2/2010 10:51 AM EDT
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Posts: 2
First: 8/2/2010 Last: 8/3/2010 |
We have a small company (10) and a policy of 40 hours paid vacacation and 40 hours personal days for full time employees (average of 144 hours worked per month). We have an employee that has been a full time employee, above the 144 hours every month for her first 12 months. Since the end of January 2010 she has missed work off and on due to illness. Her monthly average for this year so far has dropped below 144 and the person that handles the time cards feels that she should not get her vacation time and personal days because she has worked below the average of hours. My question is should she forfeit her paid time off because of illness? She has not missed work due to taking time off but has missed work due to illness. |
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lose vacation time due to illness
posted at 8/2/2010 11:31 AM EDT
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Posts: 464
First: 6/30/2004 Last: 11/22/2010 |
I just have a general understanding that others might be able to make more specific.
It is my understanding the Fair Labor Standards Act makes no distinction between part time and full time employment. It is up to the employer to make that determination. The Federal Service Contract provisions do address this for Federal workers. As I understand it, part-time and temporary workers get a pro-rated share of benefits, absent specific provisions or findings to the contrary. For my company, benefit determination is specified by our benefit provider agreements. If a designated part-timer works something like 27 consecutive weeks at 30 or more hours, they become benefit eligible. I am not well versed in this area and will be curious to hear what the pros say. |
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lose vacation time due to illness
posted at 8/2/2010 12:21 PM EDT
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Posts: 562
First: 11/12/2009 Last: 9/14/2011 |
It sounds like you are trying to determine if your employee should forfeit her PTO because she's not working the 144 hour threshhold.
I would hesitate to forfeit any time already granted. If her time off was earned in 2009 and given to her in a lump sum on January 1 2010, I wouldn't touch it. If, however, she is accruing time off with each pay period and this person isn't putting in the hours as required, then I think you would be justified in not giving any more (assuming no laws to the contrary in your state. I doubt there). |
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lose vacation time due to illness
posted at 8/2/2010 3:38 PM EDT
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Posts: 108
First: 2/1/2007 Last: 9/9/2010 |
Has the PTO and personal time already been earned/accrued. If so, I'd also be reluctant to take it back and in some states it might be illegal to do so.
PT/FT status is generally determined by the employer. What does your policy say? How far below 40 hours a week on average does an employee have to go before no longer being considered full-time? If you don't have a policy addressing these issues then you should consider implementing one. Again, I wouldn't retroactively do anything to this employee. But I would make a decision on how to classify FT and PT employees and then decide whether I was going to prorate PTO/personal days or only grant them to FT employees and move forward from there. I'll also add that anytime I change an employee's status from FT to PT or the other way around I notify the employee in writing. |
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lose vacation time due to illness
posted at 8/3/2010 5:41 AM EDT
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Posts: 1047
First: 4/11/2002 Last: 9/14/2011 |
A couple of questions:
1. Do you have a sick time policy? 2. Have you considered accruing vacation time based on the number of hours worked? Meaning, if an employee misses 10% of the year due to sickness, he or she would get 36 hours vs. 40 (10% less)? 3. What do you consider small in regards to your company size? Maybe you can go to a PTO policy, which lumps vacation, sick and personal paid time off into one bucket? This way you wouldn't have to deal with this situation in the future. But as the other posters noted, I probably wouldn't do anything retroactively. On a side note, 40 hours paid vacation time is really, really low compared to what other companies offer. While the additional 40 hours of personal time helps, I'm assuming your company didn't envision this to be used as extra vacation time. This could be a hurdle when it comes to attracting and retaining employees. |
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lose vacation time due to illness
posted at 8/3/2010 8:43 AM EDT
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Posts: 2
First: 8/2/2010 Last: 8/3/2010 |
We are 10 people strong in our company. I am the HR person not because of any experience or knowledge, just the only one w/ enough knowledge and experience to wing it. We have 40 hours vac time/40 hours personal time for 1st year and subsequent years it's 80/40. The personal days can be used however the employees wish.
I appreciate everyones input, my gut feeling was that taking away time already granted would be wrong..and possibly illegal. I think i need to reform the policy for vacation hours based on percentage..the only problem is we don't have the man-power/money to keep track of that. We're in that growing pains stage where we have bigger needs but not enough money to cover them. |
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lose vacation time due to illness
posted at 8/3/2010 12:02 PM EDT
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Posts: 562
First: 11/12/2009 Last: 9/14/2011 |
Well, rather than pro-rate it just establish some simple cut off points. For 144 hours per month, it's the full allowance of vacation/PTO. For 72 - 143, it's half that amount. Less than 72, nothing.
Easy to administer and to understand. |
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lose vacation time due to illness
posted at 8/4/2010 7:49 AM EDT
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
What state are you in? Some, like California, have laws that state --> once earned, it belongs to the employee and it can not be taken away and must be paid out at termination. Other states leave it to the employer policy.
Personally, we do the prorate amount for first and last years of employment and that would include those moving into benefits and out of benefits. For those of use that work flex (less than 40 hr per week) schedules, our annual allotment is prorated. For example, I work 30 hours per week, so I get 75% of the vacation/sick hours give to a fulltime 40 hour a week employee. |
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