Vacation & Sick pay

robinhrgirl

Need a little help. Our vacation policy states that vacation time applies to 12 month employees. But for those employees that work 12 months and are part-time (4 hours or less has been the past practice of determining ineligibility) are we obligated by any law to pay them vacation in their regular work-day increments? For instance an employee working 3 hours per day receives 5 days @ 3 hours per day.
Our sick leave policy states that we provide sick leave benefits to all eligible employees (eligibility is not defined) for periods of temporary absence due to illnesses or injuries. Is there any law that obligates us to pay part-time employees (less than 4 hours per day) sick leave in their regular work-day increments?

I guess the question is can these benefits be at our discretion?
I am not the payroll "guru" here, but I thought I might gain some insight for the organization.
Thank you for any advice/knowledge you can share.

Robin

Margaret Morford

The employer gets to decide whether to give vacation and sick time as a benefit, who is eligible and how much they are eligible for. I recommend that you have a written policy to make sure everyone in each employee group gets treated the same or you may have some discrimination problems. However, you can give all full-timers different vacation from part-timers.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

mrsbowden

Again just my 2cents and I too am still learning payroll, but to my knowledge ER's are not REQUIRED to give sick and vacation time AT ALL, ARE THEY? I have to say I agree if you have give sick and/or vacation to one part-timer I would consider all the other part-timers...I am a stickler for Fair and Consistent Treatment...it just seems to risky not to be x:)

Margaret Morford

You are correct. Employers are not required to give any vacation or sick time. Some states may have some special leave laws, but usually these are unpaid.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]