Out of Date Staff Paid Time Off Policy

Sick and Vacation Policy: This policy applies to all workers paid by Free Geek.
List of Policies - Policy Development

Policy

Approved at a staff meeting April 4, 2008.

Rate of Accrual

Collective members accrue sick and vacation time at the rate of 3.6 weeks per year. This is a straight fraction of every hour paid that currently works out to 0.0692 hours for each hour worked. Committed non-collective members accrue sick and vacation time at the rate of 1 weeks per year (0.0192 hours for each hour worked). There is no difference between sick and vacation time in terms of accounting.

Taking hours before they have accrued: Collective members must have already accrued their vacation hours prior to taking the vacation time. However, the collective member should be allowed to take sick time in advance when necessary for actual sickness or otherwise approved by the collective. (For instance in the case of a family emergency, the collective could allow the worker to take time not yet earned.)

Others: Staff members not referred to above do not receive sick or vacation benefits.

Limits on vacation accrual

Staff collective members earning vacation time must take that vacation within two years of having earned it.
Unused vacation time that exceeds that limit must be scheduled or will be lost to the collective member.

Notification

Workers should use common sense in announcing general vacation plans as far in advance as is possible within reason.

Workers must request vacation time in advance with the specific times they will be away from work clearly stated. This should be done on the staff mailing list and at a staff meeting. All requests should be posted to the staff calendar as soon as feasible.

If there is enough lead time, discussion should take place at a staff collective meeting, rather than on the staff list.

Approval

The staff collective can grant or deny specific vacation requests. When denying a vacation the collective must clearly state the reason for denial. The collective must make efforts to accommodate any worker asking for vacation providing the worker has accrued the hours required for the vacation and gave a reasonable amount of notice. However, the collective may set a maximum number of staff allowed to be away simultaneously (on vacation or otherwise). The current number is 2. If a vacation request would cause more than that number to be away at the same time, then the request will be denied unless overruled after discussion at a staff collective meeting.

In the event that workers want overlapping vacations, the staff may determine that there is a conflict and will need to decide which worker may take the vacation. In that event the following procedure must be followed:

First, the contending workers should be asked to try to work out the conflict.
If the conflict cannot be resolved, the staff should grant vacation using the following priority:
- Already approved requests receive the highest priority.
- If neither request has yet been approved, the worker with the most seniority receives the next highest priority.
- In the event that two workers have equal seniority, the vacation will be decided by a coin toss.

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, and the amount shall be included in their final paycheck.

Vacation procedures

(This is a list of steps that can be taken to ensure the above policy is followed.)

Staff collective members will tell their paid interns about these policies (as will the intern's buddy).
It is the responsibility of each collective member to review this and schedule vacation time before reaching the maximum accumulation. Available hours accrued appear on pay check stubs and in the payroll reports.
Upon hiring a new collective member, their maximum accrual amount will be reported to them.
The HR committee will review all collective members accumulated vacation time owed at least twice per year and notify all collective members that are approaching their maximum.

Old staff vacation policies

The following policies were superseded when we adopt the above text.

Asking for vacation: The process for getting vaction days approved

Limits on Vacation Accrual: How much vacation can staff members build up?

Retroactive Vacation Credit: What about the folks that were working here before we had a vacation policy?