Leave Usage

maryfmurray

We have found out that our leave liability account is very high and we are trying to find alternative ways to bring the costs down.
Could we now impose a use it or lose it deadline on leave that has
already been accrued prior to the deadline?
Is there any website or manual I could research the regulations or statutes in the state of New Hampshire?
Could we legally buyout old vacation leave and what rate of pay could we use to base this buyout on when our employees rates of pay change from year to year?

sonny

I don't know about N.H. but we had the same problem here. We capped the amount of time allowed to accrue and offered a one time buy out at the persons current hourly wage to bring them down to the new cap.

maryfmurray

How did you place a cap on time to accrue? Sounds like an interesting plan? I'd like to hear more about it.

sonny

Previously, employees were allowed to accrue their vacation (if not taken) on and ongoing basis to be paid out in full at termination or retirement. Some people who had been here 20 years had literally hundreds of hours. Auditors said "too much" They came up with a cap of 400 hours (still VERY generous). Once you reach 400 hours, you no longer accrue until you drop back down below 400. We currently do not have a cap on sick time, but would guess it is coming for the same reasons. Where I worked previously, sick time was capped at 960 hours. Hope this helps.

maryfmurray

Sonny,
How did you go about setting up the buyout option? Was this buyout only to be done at termination or retirement? or did you determine a deadline for someone to make a decision as to how much time they wished to buyout?