A Vacation Question from a Slightly Different Angle

Parabeagle

Any Montana experts out there? I am currently swimming in self-doubt over this issue. I just returned from a staff assistance visit to our Montana property and was informed by our general manager back there that in Montana, vacation is considered earned and therefore our use-it-or-lose-it policy is invalid. I disagree and so far have not found anything in my resources or the Montana code that would tell me differently.

Our policy states that vacation is awarded on an employee's anniversary date and he/she is required to use it prior to the next anniversary date or any unused days will be lost. However, if the individual terminates employment, they are paid for any accrued/unused days in their account.

As I said, I could find nothing in the Montana code or any of my other reference sources, so if anyone out there knows the answer off the top of their heads, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

Don D

Don't know about Montana, Parabeagle, and even though I'm not absolutely certain about my own state, our practice is to refer to vacation as a gift for having worked a year, not something accrued or earned. That may be semantics; but, I'm told it allows us to erase it if it's not used during the calendar year. We do pay it out, though, at termination. Where are the Forum lawyers?

Whirlwind

I'm neither a Montana expert nor a Forum attorney (and I don't play one on TV), but I'll tell you what I think from a common sense standpoint. One, I kind of doubt you can change your ability to carry forward vacation or not by labeling it a "gift." Two, the Montana state labor or workforce commission or department should be able to advise you on this.

For what it's worth, here's what we do in Texas government: Employees earn a monthly accrual of vacation from day one but they are unable to use it if they have less than six months of continuous state service. If they quit in less than six months, they lose it. If they make it to six months, they can start using it and they can carry the unused portion forward year to year up to certain numeric caps that get higher with length of service. It works well.