Exempt & PTO advance payback

Our current policy regarding PTO is we'll advance up to "x" hours, but will recoup any negative balances at termination. I'm thinking this could be a problem where exempt personnel are concerned. Do any of you have a PTO/Vacation advance policy and do you withhold negative balances at termination on exempt employees?

Thanks

Comments

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  • We give our employees all of their PTO for the year at the beginning of the year to use at their discretion. But if they leave and have taken more than what they've earned we do recoup those hours on their last pay check as long as we don't bring their gross under minimum wage. If there is anything left over then we send them a memo stating what they owe and to make payment arrangements. We have had some who have left owing us PTO. Most have made arrangements and paid it back. We still have had those that have not and we have sent to collections. In five years I would say we've had like three that have done that.

    So the answer to your question is yes. We do recoup when they are terminated.
  • We generally don't allow individuals to go into the negative unless there is an extreme emergency. Mismanaging PTO is not an emergency. If someone does go into the negative, our policy is for them to bring themselves back into the positive before any more leave is approved.

    South Carolina is very strict on garnishing wages for anything except child support, taxes or student loans. Unless you have some type of written agreement signed by the employee that they will agree to this arrangement, this would not fly in our state.


  • We have a vacation advance policy. We recently switched from ees earning vacation time in week blocks (1 week at the first of the year, 1 week on July 1st. If additional vacation time, you could earn a week around the end of September, and the last week was earned on December 31st), to ees earning time each month deoending on the number of weeks they have accrued.

    We clearly designate the policy by calling it a vacation advance. The policy clearly states that if you resign or are discharged prior to earning time off you have taken, you will be charged back for it. This is explained during orientation and is contained in the handbook. The acknowledgement sign off sheet for the handbook serves and the agreement that the ee is aware of the policy and agrees with the terms of the policy. If it happens that an ee leaves and did n ot all of the vacation time s/he took, one the last check, we take what they owe and it shows as a VacRepay on the check stub. If they owe anything additional to what we recouped from the last check, we will bill them for the balance.
  • We do not allow EEs to use vacation or sick time ahead of earning it, with the exception of some rounding differences that amount to less than an hour.


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