Floating Holiday

Prairie Pragmatic

We offer three Floating Holidays annually. They are MLK's Birthday, Veteran's Day and President's Day. Our present policy is you can use them during our fiscal year which starts in October but if you terminate employment before those Holidays accrued, then you have to go retroactively and take a vacation day for those day. My asistant says that these days accrued at the start of the fiscal year and employees need to be paid for them if they quit before the accrual date. What is your opinion?

HR in CA

Ckeck the law in your state. In California, the way your question is worded we would have to pay out the floaters. But again California may be different than
your state.

mwild31

This site ties in directly with your question - see page 9, section 12:

[url]http://www.state.nd.us/lr/information/acdata/pdf/46-02-07.pdf[/url]

From my reading it would appear that you would only have to pay them once they 'earned' the time off - that is, their accrual bank actually was increased & it shows they 'earned' the time. If any hours began accruing at the start of the fiscal year, such a vacation and the like, then you would have to pay them for whatever they have IN THEIR BALANCE at the time of termination. For example: an employee receives two weeks or 80 hours of vacation per year - rather than receiving this in a lump amount, they accrue it over the year and each paycheck they 'earn' 3.33333 hours of vacation - this is the balance you would have to pay - and the same holds true if you accrue holidays in the same manner. I hope that makes sense - you can also contact ND state offices & receive clarification.

Don D

I'm not sure I understand what's 'floating' about a holiday that is designated in advance. In my experience a 'floater' suggests options and choices.

Prairie Pragmatic

In our case, the employee does not have to take that day off on that particular holiday but can instead use it any other time of the fiscal year.

Don D

Gotcha. Thanks. We have two floaters, but oddly, the ee does not have a say in the matter. Our management group sets which two days will be the floaters. I'm not sure our practice meets the traditional definition of floaters, except that they float up there in space till management decides when we take them.

ray a

What would you do if an ee received holiday pay for New Year's day then resigned 2 weeks later? They have not accrued that holiday, do you make them pay it back?

We have one floater which can be taken at any time throughout the year. If an ee resigns, and has not taken the floater, they forfeit it. If they resign and have used it, they keep it.

marc

All our holidays are fixed, instead we allow two personal days for the ee to use at their discretion. The days accrue at the beginning of the year and are "earned" on January 1, Even if the ee was hired December 31st. If they leave, they are paid. I offer this because it is nearly identical to your situation, except we do not require any type of payback if they quit right after they accrued the days. We pay them in the last check if they have not been used.