Human Resource Blog

Our advice is *do not go there.* Yes, this could change the contractors status, and it sets a precedent that you have no intention of continuing. Simply tell the employee that you appreciate his generosity, but the company has decided not to allow gifts of vacation time or holiday pay at this time.

In most companies, when an employee fails to use all his or her vacation time, it reverts back to the company, resulting in a cost savings to the employer. (Even if you allow employees to carry over vacation time, it is an expense you may not have to pay for a decade or more.) So basically the employee thinks he is paying the contractors with *his* money, but in reality he is paying them with *your* money, in the form of vacation time that he would not use.

Many employers find that 50% to 75% of all vacation time goes to waste. If you allow gifting of vacation time to other employees or contractors, that will guarantee that all vacation time is used by every employee every year, resulting in an increase of 50% to 100% in the cost of this benefit.

We will also say that any employee who feels he has enough vacation time to give some away probably has too much vacation time. You should consider capping the total amount of vacation employees can earn, or implementing a use-it-or-lose-it policy if legal in your state.

No, as long as your handbook states that FMLA covers employers with 50 or more workers within 75 miles, you are not obligated to offer FMLA to employees at smaller locations.

By law, an employer covered by FMLA must inform all employees in writing of their rights. Usually this is done with both a notification in the employee handbook and by displaying an FMLA poster. Many smaller employers include the notification in the employee handbook out of an abundance of caution. Simply printing the notice does not make the law applicable to a smaller company.

Our favorite source of FMLA posters is at www.laborlawcenter.com.

Yes, it is very common for exempt employees to negotiate more vacation time than normal, during the job offer process. There is nothing illegal about this. One manager might have 2 weeks of vacation and a different manager with the same job might have 4 weeks of vacation.

If all the members of one group (such as white females)  had more vacation time than other employees, that might be illegal discrimination.  

This is a legal quagmire and you would be better off consulting an attorney. By not notifying the employee, you have deprived her of FMLA rights. However, you may be able to retroactively designate her leave without pay as FMLA. It is not clear why you would grant such a long period of LWOP if you did not intend to return the employee to her job.

If you have returned other employees to the same job after LWOP in the past, you need to do so with this worker. You also need to craft a clear written policy on LWOP for the future.

Each employee simply receives 2.77 hours of sick leave per week worked between the anniversary date and the date your new policy goes into effect. That is 144 hours of sick leave divided by 52 weeks per year.

That is because 144 hours of sick leave divided by 12 months = 12 hours of sick leave per month. You are not really changing the amount of sick leave, you are simply changing the way it is awarded.

Suppose you implement the new sick leave policy on September 1.  Marias anniversary was on June 23, 10 weeks before the new policy goes into effect. You will award Maria an additional 10 weeks of sick leave at 2.77 hours per week, or 27.7 hours of sick leave on September 1. Then, she will earn 12 hours of sick leave per month (or 2.77 hours per week) going forward.