Holiday Pay-must work day before/after

Bonzo · June 2002

We have a policy that employees must work the scheduled shift before and after a paid holiday in order to receive holiday pay. The only cases in which this would not apply would be when on approved paid sick leave or vacation. Some staff who have been absent due to alleged illness on the day after a recent holiday feel this is unfair. Do others have and enforce such a policy?

Lori B · June 2002

We have this policy but we only use it with our hourly staff. They need to be at work unless on preapproved vacation or they have a doctor's note. We were getting burned by too many people turning 3-day weekends into 4, etc. Some people gripe about it, but we just point out that it only took a few people to ruin it for everyone. They seem to understand our logic then.

We do not use this policy with our salaried, exempt staff. There are FLSA issues when you dock pay for a day for an exempt who is "ready and willing to work" but you close the facility. I interpret this to mean that you pay your exempts when you close for holiday, no matter what...

Good luck.

Hatchetman · June 2002

We have a similar policy -- the employee must be on a "full pay" status the day before OR after the paid holiday. As you can see, we don't require both ends, only one end be on a full pay status (I say "full pay" because in one of our accrued sick leave benefit plans that is now only avialable to old timers, an emplyee can be on a "partial pay" sick leave day, after full sick leave pay runs out.

Gillian · June 2002

We changed ours to must be on paid status before and after. The rule of working the day before or day after makes sense in a production environment but less so in other environments. The key to the decision is whether or not the absenses before or after a holiday hurt productivity. If they do, the rule makes sense, if you have it just because of tradition, consider changing it.

HR in PA · June 2002

We have a policy in place that our employees must work the scheduled day before and after a paid holiday to qualify for holiday pay. If they are out for other than previously arranged vacation or personal time, they must provide a doctor's excuse.

Johanaf · June 2002

The point of having a policy is to follow it and enforce it. What are you going to do next time an employee doesn't show the day before or the day after a holiday? I believe consistency is the best policy.

Kingphr_ AR · June 2002

We have a very strict policy regarding holiday pay.

you must work the entire scheduled shift the day before and after the holiday. the only exceptions to this are prior approved vacation time, berevement involving an immediate family member as defined by that policy, jury duty or a verified medical emergency.

Also to define a bit further, we consider that the "full scheduled" day is the last day you work prior to or the first day back from the holiday. In otherwords, if an employee has vacation on July 8, 2002 and then calls in sick on July 9, 2002, they are no longer eligible for the holiday pay.

This has cut out the abuse of taking extra long weekends.

Hope this helps.

System · June 2002

At our manufacturing firm we have the same rule. Scheduled days off before or after the holiday such as vacation day, personal day, or excused days such as jury duty and bereavement day are allowed and do not affect receiving holiday pay. If someone calls in sick, they must provide doctor's certification of illness or injury. In this case the supervisor can approve payment of holiday pay. Requiring a doctor's note helps to ensure that legitimate absences don't punish the employee. We get very few of them. Also, be sure to put up a notice before each holiday remining employees of the rule. This helps the newer employees who might have forgotten what you told them during orientation!

Holiday Pay-must work day before/after

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