Human Resource Blog

Vacation Benefits

	Attendance Management
Vacation Request / Response Form Weekly Time Sheets Attendance Calendar for 2008, 2009, or 2010 Annual Attendance Tracker Vacation Request Form for 2008, 2009, 2010 (Calendar) Detailed Absence Report

	Benefits
Total Compensation Summary Performance Improvement Plan Performance Appraisal and Review Employee Payroll Status/Change Form Employee Change Form

	Compensation
Employee Payroll Action Form W-4 Employee Withholding Allowance Cert. Employee Payroll Status/Change Form Direct Deposit Form Total Compensation Summary

I was looking over the vacation benefits question. It states South Carolina companies do not have to pay vacation time upon termination but what if they lay us off? Or if every year before now if we didnt take our vacation they would just pay it?

Unfortunately, payment of wages in lieu of vacation to current employees and to terminated employees are entirely different topics. And, it doesn’t matter whether the employee quit or was laid off in this case.

Even if a company has a policy to pay earned vacation to current employees, it doesn’t automatically mean that they have to pay them to terminated employees in South Carolina.

According to the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, there is no state law that requires an employer to provide a worker with benefits such as vacation, sick leave or holiday pay.

If an employer does provide these benefits, the employer must give the worker notice of the policies surrounding those benefits in writing. This notice can be in an employee handbook, or provided individually to each employee. Or, it can be done by displaying a poster with the benefit policies on it. Under state law, the employer must honor those policies.

So if your current employer has a written policy of paying vacation benefits to terminated workers, then the employer must honor that policy. This is enforced by the South Carolina Department of Labor Licensing and Regulation.

Any changes in the employee benefit policy by a South Carolina employer must be made in writing, at least 7 days before the changes become effective. Again, this can be done individually or by posting a notice that the benefits will be changed.

It is possible that a terminated employee in South Carolina could sue the employer and recover vacation pay in court, if the employer had paid other terminated workers for vacation time in the past, and had never changed that policy.