When employees leave, do you pay them for the PTO time they have on th

[Guest Candy V]

Sheila - thanks for posting your PTO policy. I have a few questions:

1. When employees leave your employment, do you pay them off for the PTO time

they have on the books?

2. Playing "devils advocate" - I would think combining "vacation" and "sick/personal"

time under PTO actually gives the employees more paid time off than keeping the two

programs separate. Your thoughts...

3. I love the part of your policy indicating that during someone's final two-week

notice of separation, PTO will not be granted. In reality, how successful have you

been in upholding this? What keeps your employees from using PTO the week prior

to a notice and then possibly even only giving you a 1 week notice.

4. What do you do when someone does not have enough PTO to fill in for their

absence/s (i.e., they haven't earned enough time or they are the typical earn it/use it

employee and all of the sudden find themselves needing time they should have

banked!)? Are they allowed so many hours of unpaid time and then you move into

disciplinary procedures, etc., etc. - or what???

Thanks - look forward to your feedback. Feedback from others would also be great.

Candy Vande Ven

HR Director, International Arabian Horse Assoc.

Denver, CO candy.vandeven@iaha.com or

303-696-4563

[This message has been edited by Sheila k (edited 12-22-1999).]

[Sheila K]

Candy:

Sorry about the e-mail address. Thought it had been updated on this system, but I'll check it again!

1. When employees leave your employment, do you pay them off for the PTO time

they have on the books? {We pay 75% of the value of their PTO at separation.}

2. Playing "devils advocate" - I would think combining "vacation" and "sick/personal"

time under PTO actually gives the employees more paid time off than keeping the two

programs separate. Your thoughts... {POTENTIALLY there is more time off. HOWEVER, time must actually be managed by the employee to avoid needing time off for emergencies and then not having time available. Since the "RSB" time can not be used for the 1st 3 days of absence, PTO time is used and decreases the amount of time available for scheduled time off (vacations, etc.)}

3. I love the part of your policy indicating that during someone's final two-week

notice of separation, PTO will not be granted. In reality, how successful have you

been in upholding this? What keeps your employees from using PTO the week prior

to a notice and then possibly even only giving you a 1 week notice. {Very successful! If they take a day during the last two weeks, it is not paid. Once notice is given, no PTO is paid in the final two weeks, since at that time, we would only be paying 75% on separation. We do require two weeks notice, so if EE takes a PTO day, then gives only one weeks notice, their PTO balance is decreased by a week before being paid out. If they give 3 days notice, their PTO bank would be decreased by 7 days before any time was paid.}

4. What do you do when someone does not have enough PTO to fill in for their absences (i.e., they haven't earned enough time or they are the typical earn it/use it employee and all of the sudden find themselves needing time they should have banked!)? Are they allowed so many hours of unpaid time and then you move into disciplinary procedures, etc., etc. - or what??? {At the same time we instituted our PTO policy, we instituted an absence policy as well. After 3 unscheduled absences (for any reason), a verbal warning is given. After 5 unscheduled absences, a written warning is given. After 7, the employee is terminated. This is for a rolling 12 month period. A series of consecutive days absence counts as one occurence of unscheduled absence. We do NOT allow negative hours in PTO, so any time would be unpaid. If an employee is earning/using, AND has scheduled all of their time off, then the manager will probably counsel them about banking some time for emergencies. Also, the employee would not be able to schedule any time off if they have not accrued it. If they have a scheduled vacation, but have used all their time when it rolls around, they will not be allowed the time off w/o pay.}

Candy, again, I apologize for your inability to get in contact with me. Please feel free to call me if you have other questions.

Sheila K

R&D Specialist/Corporate Planning

AFCU

smkarizona@techie.com

602-683-1013

[This message has been edited by Sheila k (edited 12-22-1999).]

[Guest Robin V]

I have a vacation payout question. I am very new to this board, and have an issue with the way that our current vacation policy reads. Right now employees accrue vacation time as soon as they walk in the door. However, they are not supposed to use it for six months after their start date. ( although with permission they do.) Employees can carry over up to 10 days of their vacation time after their anniversary date. This is where I question the policy....it also states that if an employee leaves before they have completed six months of employment they will not be paid out the vacation time when they leave. My issue with this is that in my mind they are earning the time when they walk in the door. I think if the policy read you get one week of vacation after 6 months of employment and two after 1 year of employment and the employee left before the 6 mont mark then we wouldn't have to pay out vacation, but since they are earning it can we legally withhold that money from them when they leave?

signed confused!

[Kirk Maldonado]

I think you are obligated to pay 100% of the accrued amounts to employees situated in California.

[mroberts]

Additionally, Massachusetts, Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana and Iowa also have state laws that require pay out of accrued vacation time upon termination. Remember, vacation time is not required. Any time an employer provides you with vacation time, it is a benefit they are providing to you and therefore, can determine how to adminster it.

[Sheila K]

I'm in Arizona, so can only speak to that arena. We do NOT pay out for vacation accrued in the first six months BECAUSE, they would not have been able to take the time as paid time until eligible (after six months), even though it is being accrued.

In the situation where you are sometimes allowing employees to take the time prior to them being eligible, you may need to pay it out to all employees because you have given the benefit to the ones who were allowed to take the paid time?????