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Holiday pay and FMLA
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Holiday pay and FMLA
Discuss employment-law issues such as family leave, overtime, disabilities law, harassment, immigration and termination.
If an employee goes out on FMLA and chooses to be paid their accrued vacation and sick leave until it is exhausted and a holiday that the company observes falls on a day during the time for which they
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Forums » Topic Forums » Legal Forum » Holiday pay and FMLA
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Holiday pay and FMLA
posted at 6/14/1999 4:00 AM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: 6/14/1999 Last: 6/14/1999 |
If an employee goes out on FMLA and chooses to be paid their accrued vacation and sick leave until it is exhausted and a holiday that the company observes falls on a day during the time for which they are being paid their accrued vacation and sick leave are we legally required to also pay the employee for that holiday? Our company operates out of the state of Maryland in case that matters.
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Holiday pay and FMLA
posted at 6/14/1999 8:44 AM EDT
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Posts: 833
First: 6/11/1999 Last: 8/23/2001 |
Most likely, depending on your policy.
Let's say one of your employees goes on vacation in the first week of July, and is gone on vacation for the 4th-of-July holiday. Would you pay the holiday in addition to vacation, reinstate one vacation day and pay just the holiday time for the 4th, or just pay the vacation time and the employee loses the holiday? Because the underlying reason is FMLA- related shouldn't effect your decision; if you would have provided holiday pay for someone whose vacation transversed a company holiday, you are safe following your own policy. Where you would run into a problem is those "you must work the day before/day after in order to get the holiday" scenarios where absence before or after is FMLA-qualified, in essence depriving the employee of holiday pay for taking a qualified leave. Unless Maryland has something unique, the government's FMLA does not mandate you provide benefits over what the employee would have gotten -- the employee doesn't have to make out better; he/she just can't make out worse. In your instance, you could provide the holiday pay for that one day in lieu of a vacation day, effectively extending his paid time by one day. There is no mandate for you to pay both vacation AND holiday for the same day, unless you would do that for anyone else who was on vacation for a week containing a holiday. Holidays that fall during vacations are a pretty popular question with employees -- if you haven't addressed it in your policy- or handbook, it may be a good idea. |
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Holiday pay and FMLA
posted at 6/14/1999 5:22 PM EDT
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Posts: 38
First: 6/9/1999 Last: 10/26/2004 |
In essence, I generally agree with Jim. (Now THAT's a surprise!)
Keep in mind the purpose underlying FMLA leave. An employer is generally required to pretend that (other than for pay purposes) the employee was not out on leave on a FMLA day. Now, because FMLA is unpaid, an employer may adopt a policy which permits or requires employees to use all paid leave as part of the FMLA leave. So, ignoring FMLA, what would you do when an employee takes a vacation and a paid holiday falls in the middle? Treat this vacation the same way. That's the safest course. I also agree that these issues should be addressed in a written policy. |
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