Sheila K

Could someone give me the updated "thinking" on the value of a company vehicle to an employee. Basically we're in the process of making an offer to someone and want to consider the value of the vehicle to the employee as a part of his salary package. I've heard numbers from $6,000 to $8,000 per year..but am not certain if that's current thinking or not. Any help would be appreciated. THANKS (Posted by Sheila K for Doug Brown)

jtobin: We just had this discussion at work this week. It seems that the payroll person was paying the accrual to the ones leaving before 6 months. We have stopped this practice. If we won't let an employee use that accrued vacation time in the first six months, then we certainly won't pay them for it if they leave!!! Good luck... Sheila K

Just to let you know, we have a pretty lengthy discussion of this same topic going at the "Miscellaneous Benefits" page. Come on over and check it out! Sheila K Moderator-Miscellaneous Benefits on Benefits Link

Larrydean: Because vacation policies are totally at the discretion of the employer, I don't think that your current policy is a violation of any wage/hour or labor laws. Your employer is offering a vacation benefit with options that make it low-cost to them. Some options that may be attractive to both employees and the company may include: Allow vacation carry-over on an annual basis, rather than on anniversary dates. The amount of carryover can be limited to 1 or 2 weeks of vacation. Sell back unused vacation at the end of the year, allowing a monetary benefit if the vacation time could not be scheduled during the year. The main criteria is that the policy must apply equally to all employees, to avoid discrimination. Good luck. Sheila K. [Note: This message was edited by Sheila K]

kdh: Arizona employer Financial Institution 340 employees Medical (POS or PPO) Dental Flexible Spending Account Vision LTD AD&D (1x Salary, 1.5 x salary for VP, 2x salary for CEO) No charge to EE EAP (Contact) No charge to EE Group Universal Life $10,000 free-additional coverage available-policy is portable If an employee elects to have medical coverage, we deposit $115.38 biweekly to their flexible spending account. If the waive medical coverage, we deposit $65.77 biweekly to FSA. Vision care is included in the price of medical coverage. If an employee selects POS medical and dental for themself only, they will have an additional $486.98/year in FSA to cover unreimbursed medical or dependent care. If they elect PPO and dental for self only, they have $35.62/year in FSA for use as above. If they elect family coverage, they will pay for the additional coverage. If you have any other questions, please contact me (smkafcu@aol.com) Good luck... Sheila K

Melanie: My understanding is that the granting of vacation and/or sick leave is a voluntary benefit granted by the employer. How they apply terms for separation is up to them. In our proposed PTO plan, we will be paying out a reduced portion of the vacation already accrued. In the past, I worked for an employer who "credited" the vacation account at the beginning of each year. If you terminated before you had "earned" the vacation (according to a pro-rata schedule) you were not compensated for it and had to "pay back" any unearned, used vacation pay. Good luck. Sheila K

Nancy: On my first glance, the antiquated portion of this seems to be the amount of accrual, not when to begin/end it! We had a similar retention problem and have recently updated our accruals to reflect a larger "jump" after 2 years. By shortening the time between increased accrual amounts, you may have folks taking a second look before making a "leap" to another position. Our accruals begin at hire date and accruals change at 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years and 25 years. There is an entire other arguement about long term employees and excessive vacation that I won't get into here! Although we are moving to a PTO plan in January 99, I will also add that up until PTO time, we also had another level for our part-time employees (tellers mostly) who would have an increased accrual at 1 year. Good luck! Sheila K

Patricia: Our company does not sponsor birthday celebrations. We publish the monthly birthdays in our employee newsletter. Each department does their own planning within their department. Some departments don't do anything and others have a 'pot' that they use to purchase presents or cakes, etc. We do provide all employees a "Birthday" holiday, an extra day off with pay, that must be used in the month of the birthday. It can not be carried over or used in any other month. Good luck! Sheila K

Fay: At our company (AZ), we require that the first 240 hours (or until sick leave is exhausted) of FMLA be paid through our short term sick leave program. We then require that the next 240 hours (or until vacation is exhausted) be paid through vacation accruals. Any remaining time is either paid by sick leave (if available) or vacation (employee's choice) or unpaid. Sheila K

Susan: Our company has a separate part-time benefit plan. We have an open enrollment period twice a year and offer medical, long term disability, dental and vision coverage. The company does not contribute towards the premiums, however, our part-time employees receive a 12.5% pay incentive for part-time work. Good luck...Sheila K

Teresa: In reviewing our policy, I stumbled upon a plan that I really liked: The company requested donations of sick leave twice a year. Employees could donate any accrued vacation time (over 40 hours) to this sick bank. No names were released regarding who received the donations. An employee/management team was chosen to review requests for the donations. Financial need had to be shown and there was a maximum 40 hour donation that could be received. In this case, an hour was an hour, regardless of pay status. The only improvement I could see would be to "convert" the vacation hours to a cash amount to be paid at the hourly rate of the person receiving the donations. Good luck.

Boy, this ones been kicking around for a long time. However, it seems to me that some common sense would tell us this: A divorce decree is binding only on the petitioner and respondent. If one is ordered to pay a credit card bill, the other one is still liable. It would seem to me that the court would be taking a lot of heat if they began mandating this type of coverage and using the divorce decree to "order" coverage. The more likely response is that one or the other spouse would be ordered to pay for the ex-spouse.

I'm getting lots of stories about "cousins" and "friends" whose employers offer pet insurance as an option through their cafeteria plan. Is this something we can really do, or just an urban legend? Thanks...Sheila K

At our company, we allocate $3000/year for employees who need medical coverage. If the employee is covered on another plan, they have the option to "opt-out" of the plan. They are then allocated $1710/year which is deposited into a cafeteria plan. These "opt-out" employees have the option of selecting dental and/or vision care, with the premiums taken from the $1710 allocation. Sheila K

Pamela: I just located a web-site that might give you a good start in this area. Try: http://www.w-p.com/wessels/alert.htm. Sheila K

Liesl: Although we are a larger company, we do set restrictions in each of our branches and departments. You are perfectly within your rights to limit the number of people taking vacation on a particular day. We must submit our requests for vacation to individual branch or department managers. In most instances, only one employee may be off on any given day. Depending on the size of the branch/department, two people may be granted the same day off. We require all employees to take a full 5 consecutive days off per year for security reasons. All requests for this time are made in January. From this pool of requests, seniority generally determines the "winner" in case of conflicting requests. Once these dates are set, the balance of the time is granted on a "first come, first served" basis, regardless of seniority. Vacation time adjacent to holidays may be requested, but can be denied if the workload will not allow for time off. In addition, no employee may take more than two "extended" holiday periods (vacation adjacent to holidays) per year. In other words, I can't take additional time around each and every holiday so that I have 10 extra long weekends per year. We also do not allow an employee to have vacation time adjacent to the same holiday two years in a row. If I take a week before Christmas in 1998, I am not eligible for a week around Christmas 1999. This is REGARDLESS of seniority. Finally, I do believe in a written policy for scheduling vacation time. Until recently, we (HRD) placed all of the "approved" vacation time into a centrally located calendar found on our computer system. This allowed for all branch/department managers to review the vacation schedule and make decisions based on staffing levels. Good luck...Sheila K

Liesl: We provide approximately the same accrual of vacation. Although we are switching to a PTO plan 1/1/99, our currently policy does allow for the use of 3 sick days per year for family members. This would include parents. If Dr. appointments are scheduled in advance, the employee has a choice of using sick or vacation time for those appointments. The same 3 day policy applies for these type of appointments. If you have any other questions, please post or e-mail me directly. Sheila K

Jay: You may want to try the cbs website to see if there is any info on the content. Most networks have pretty good information, but if it's not on the site, look for an e-mail address where you can get additional information. Sheila K

We require that any time over 80 hours of accumulated vacation time be sold back at year end for current rate of pay. We are coming up on the third year of doing this, and it has been very popular. Good luck. Sheila K

If you were employed when you became disabled, you should talk to your employer about any programs available where you work. Short term/long term disability or sick leave options come immediately to mind. Some employers allow employees to donate vacation or sick time to come to the assistance of co-workers in your kind of situation. If these types of programs are not available, it may be to your advantage to contact your state's social benefits agencies. They can provide information about food stamps and other assistance programs. Remember, as a tax-paying employee, you have been contributing to those programs for as long as you have worked. You may be entitled to receive the benefit of the programs you have previously supported through your tax dollars. Good luck.

Pamela: We have just made a similar move at our company. We have done or looked at doing the following: Flexible scheduling Extra perks for carpooling (monthly drawing for cash, covered parking, etc.) Directory of local businesses Day care accomodations Tele-commuting We had some folks leave when the move was announced, but we have not lost anyone since we moved into the facility. Our directory of local businesses is set up on the network and includes information on restaurants, day care, retail stores, auto repair, and other services that employees may need to find closer to work. Good luck...Sheila K

We are a not-for-profit financial institution with over 300 employees. Our tuition policy take effect after 6 months of employment. We will pay 100% of resident state-college tuition for any class that is work or career path related. Reimbursement is made upon paid registration. Employees must submit proof of grade after completion of the class. If the grade is not a "C" or above, then the tuition reimbursement must be returned to us. We do not pay for books or lab fees, etc. Tuition only is reimbursed. We also have a policy that if you leave our employ within 6 months of completing the class, the cost of the tuition will be deducted from final pay. Hope this helps. Good luck...Sheila K