Out of Date Staff Paid Time Off Policy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

This policy was last updated on November 7, 2007 at the HR Meeting.

These policies are being combined and updated, for submittal to a future staff meeting. RfS 11:57, 2 April 2008 (PDT)

Rate of Accrual for Collective Members

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. 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.)

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 meeting, rather than on the staff list.

Approval

The staff can grant or deny specific vacation requests. When denying a vacation the staff must clearly state the reason for denial. The staff 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.

In the event that two or more 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.

Limits on vacation accrual

Staff members earning vacation time must take that vacation within two ~~calendar~~ years of having earned it.
Unused vacation time that exceeds that limit must be scheduled or will be 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).

Old staff vacation policies

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?