Vacation Policies

System

The Employment Law forum had a discussion on whether to pay an employee for vacation time received on 1/1 if they quit their employment right after they received the vacation. There were many valid suggestions to go ahead and pay the former employee the full 3 weeks, but tighten the policy afterward.

We have a similar situation with one of our companies. Two years ago, they changed from accruing 2 weeks of vacation on the anniversary date to a method of giving everyone 80 hours on 1/1. Our HR department is for 3 different companies and has not been allowed to track this company's vacation until recently. We will assume responsibility for it on 2/1. The problem is that no one seems to fully understand exactly how vacation is accrued or even how much vacation each person should have at this point. The biggest problem in calculating available vacation time is during the first year of employment.

Does anyone have any sample policies they would be willing to share with the rest of us? Also, is there a difference in verbiage to use if we want to make vacation available in a lump sum once a year instead of "accruing" it monthly?

Thanks for any advice or examples you can give!

System

I would also be interested in vacation policies. I recently became the first HR Manager this 50 year old company has had, and there are absolutely NO written policies to be found. I have taken care of the ones we legally have to have, and am now working on the sick and vacation policies. No one I have spoken to seems to understand how the current system works, so that tells me we need to address these policies as soon as possible. Any information on vacation or sick leave policies would be a help.

heights

Here is an example where Vacation Days are accrued on a prorated basis during the course of the employment year:

"Vacation days are allotted to all employees according to the following schedule: Years 1 and 2 - 10 days, Years 3 and 4 - 15 days, Years 5 and up - 20 days. Vacation days are accrued on a prorated basis (fill in the blank here - monthly, daily, weekly) during the course of the employment year. Vacation days must be approved in advance by the employee's supervisor. Vacation days may be carried over from one employment-year anniversary to the next. At the time of separation the employee will be paid for any accrued, unused vacation days."

This sample is for accrual over the course of employment year, but of course you can use calendar year if that works better for you. You can also spell it out more clearly if necessary - like saying "To determine your rate of accrual simply divide the number of days you are entitled to annually by the number of months in the year" (if accrued monthly).

cebudragonlady

For each employee, under the old policy of anniversary date - calculate
their accrued vaction and taken vacation from their hire date up to 12/31 ( the day before the NEW policy became effective ). This means researching old payroll records from way back, week by week if necessary from their hire dates.
Then calculate their accrued and taken vacation since 1/1 after the new policy is is in effect.It is a lot of work, but doing it will save a lot of headaches -
and put it on a computer spreadsheet that will be easy to update.