Limits on Vacation Accrual

How much vacation can Workers Accrue?

From staff meeting minutes

November 19, 2004:

Vacation hours proposals - paid over 12 weeks to reduce financial burdon 
to FG - increase use of substitute hours, buildup a fund for paying out 
folks as they leave. Approved.

September 17, 2004:

Vacation Rollover and Accumulation:
      -2 areas yet to explore
          +how many can accrue?
          +do they roll over?
      -olde time retroactive vacation needs to be dealt with separately
      -Kathy wanted to know if the vacation time could be paid out instead of taking them.
      -Not currently feasible due to monetary constraints
      -What we are currently doing is "use it or we pay you after you leave"
      -Oso wants to eliminate A and D to not cripple our finances
      -"Use it or we pay" discourages people from taking vacations
      -Oso's proposal: Rollover vacation when employed rolls over for two years. 
       If you quit, all vacation time for the last year that you have not taken, 
       you get paid out for. 1 Year buy-out.
      -Richard adds, when you quit, take your vacation at the end.
      -If you earn vacation in 2004, you get until 2006 to take it.
      -If you quit you will lose vacation more than a year old.
      -Rick wants to roll lost vacation into sick time.
      -For simplicity: two year rollover, when you quit, you can take 
       your vacation at the end if you would like.
          +We still need to iron out if it rolls over to very, very sick 
           time roll over.
          +We need to define very sick
          +Oso: against open ended sick roll over.
          +Rick: Three year accumulation for very, very sick.
      -Laurel: Once we stop operating at a loss we should revisit 
       the sick time rollover.

• PROPOSAL*

Two year rollover for vacation times. When you quit, you can take unused vacation at the end of your time. We will revisit roll over to sick time when we are not operating at a loss.

Policy wording

Since we can't find the actual text, here's a shot at wording that reflects what I think we decided on:

Limits on vacation accrual

• Staff members earning vacation time must take that vacation within two years of having earned it.

• Unused vacation time that exceeds that limit is lost to the staff member.

Payment to exiting staff members

• If a staff member is owed vacation time when he or she resigns, is laid off, or is otherwise terminated the amount of vacation time owed shall be calculated and reported to the staff member.

• Free Geek may take up to 12 weeks after a staff person's last working day to pay for any vacation money owed.

Goals to allow Free Geek to follow this policy

• The Free Geek staff has a goal of building up a pool of reserve money that will allow Free Geek to pay for all vacation time accrued when staff members leave, taking into account a reasonable rate of staff turnover.

• The Free Geek staff has a goal of increasing the amount of money available for the hiring of substitutes to cover staff vacation in an effort to encourage staff members to take vacation hours (and thereby limit the likelihood of staff members being owed money when they decide to leave).

See Also

Staff Vacation Policies