Vacation accrual while on FMLA

HRCathy

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 12-28-05 AT 04:19PM (CST)[/font][br][br]In our company, if an EE is out on leave, paid or unpaid, we accrue vacation for them. So, if my understanding of the law is correct, we have to accrue vacation for EEs out on FMLA. Does this rule hold true for EEs that do not return from FMLA? Do I have to pay them vacation from the time the FMLA runs out, or from the date they stopped working? What about holiday pay? Do I have to pay it? If I do, can I hold it until they return to work, or exhaust their time? Thanks for your help on this one.

Down_the_Middle

The easiest response is that since you already permit vacation accrual while on approved LOA's, you must treat FMLA the same. The Holiday pay issue is generally not applicable to those on any type of inactive status (LOA), but you must have some past practice to govern your current question. While it would be easy for me to tell you it is not customary (in my industry)to pay for Holidays while someone is on LOA, I would also tell you the same thing for vacation accrual. Your policy is a little unusual so perhaps someone else on this forum will tell you what they do in this instance.

HRCathy

Thanks. We don't pay holiday when someone is out on leave. Unless the leave is approved. We allow a maximum of 4 weeks of leave to any employee with us for two years. Some of it may be paid, some not. We pay all vacation accrued at the anniversary date. We never stop accruing time if they are out on an extended vacation. We have a very diverse group and many of them leave the country to visit family while on vacation. So, our policy is as long as they are on an "approved" vacation, they get the holiday pay. We don't consider FMLA as an approved vacation, so we don't pay holiday. But, we do continue to accrue vacation time while on LOA, if approved, so I guess we would have to pay vacation for FMLA. But, if someone uses their twelve weeks and never comes back, do I still have to pay that 12 weeks worth of vacation accrual?

njjel

I guess I'm uncertain about what FMLA regs say regarding whether or not we have to accrue vacation time for an ee who is out on FMLA leave. We currently do not accrue vacation time for anyone out on any type of leave of absence. Are we right or wrong on this as far as FMLA goes?

HRCathy

As long as you treat everyone the same. If you don't accrue vacation for anyone on leave, you don't have to accrue for FMLA. Since we continue to accrue as long as they are on an approved LOA, we have to accrue for FMLA too. Our company allows extended vacations, unpaid. And we don't stop accruing vacation time if they are gone on this extended vacation.

You know, the more I think about this, the more I wonder. Since FMLA is not one of our "approved" leaves, we may not have to accrue vacation time. Every employee can take up to 4 weeks off, part of it might be with pay, part without. But, either way, we consider it an extended vacation. And we accrue time while they are out. If we accrue time while the FMLA and their vacation time run concurrent, would that be enough? After they exhaust our approved time off, I should be able to stop accruing time. Does that make sense??