Part Time to Full Time

T

Employee started on 5/5/03 as a part time co-op student. As of 7/1/04 he became a full time regular employee. Since he has been here for at least one year already, would there be any harm in letting his benefits be effective on 7/1/04 (e.g. sick time - we give one day per quarter) Normally part timers do not receive benefits. I thought since he had been here so long that he really has already "served his time". The handbook says after 1 year of full time service you receive one weeks vacation. I hate to make him wait another year from 7/1/04, maybe I can compromise and make it 6 months from 7/1/04? Any ideas? This isn't too much of a legal question, I just want to be fair to him and others.

Thanks.
-T

Down_the_Middle

This sounds as though it may be the 1st time for such a situation and granting the employee "credit" for prior service can now become your future practice. Be consistent in your future decisions and this s/b a non issue.

E Wart

Sounds as if your heart is ruling here. I agree it is hard and doesn't sound fair, but you must read your policy. Otherwise you can get things mixed up for him as well as future employees. (Will he use his original hire date to calculate his time off or use his adjusted hire date, which is when he would originally be eligible to calculate future time off.) I know our policy has a little bit different twist for co-op students vs just "part timers". Co-ops are usually employed with the hopes of retaining them full time after graducation. Maybe you want to state something different for this category in your policy. Even if you do decide to award him vacation time, I would think it would be pro-portionate to the amount of time and number of months he worked.
E Wart

marc

Do not arbitrarily enforce your policies. HR folks fight for consistent interpretation every day and when we decide it is ok to violate a policy just this once, all other supervisors, managers and EEs will want the same ability for their special case. Eventually, all the policy decisions become special cases and the manual has no meaning.

jrzgrl

The other thing to consider is what your insurance contract will allow. The only conditions under which I am allowed to add someone to our plan outside of the normal waiting period is for a life event or if the person leaves our employ and comes back within one year. Your contract may not allow you to arbitrarily add this one person.