Conversion from Vacation/Sick to PTO - How much sick leave to carry over?
hrconsult8
4 Posts
My California client is converting from a vacation and sick leave policy to a PTO policy. They are going from 10 vacation days and 10 sick days to 15 PTO days. Of course, all vacation is being carried over. However, I've heard different employers have different options for carrying over accrued sick leave: 1. Carry over nothing (not very popular). 2. Carry over a percentage (30%, 50% 80%??). Leave the sick bank open for 3 months and if not used, it expires. I'm looking for ideas to give the CEO.
Comments
My California client is converting from a vacation and sick leave policy to a PTO policy. They are going from 10 vacation days and 10 sick days to 15 PTO days. Of course, all vacation is being carried over. However, I've heard different employers have different options for carrying over accrued sick leave: 1. Carry over nothing (not very popular). 2. Carry over a percentage (30%, 50% 80%??). Leave the sick bank open for 3 months and if not used, it expires. I'm looking for ideas to give the CEO. [/quote]
Carry it all over up to the maximum (truncate it)
Carry it all over but expire amounts above the max over some time frame.
In the truncate or expiration scenarios, you might consider paying them something like $20 per day unused to make the hurt stop hurting (anybody remember bactine commercials?)
If your California client is converting from separate sick and vacation leave policies to PTO then the Labor Commissioner considers the entire sum of PTO as vacation and therefore, they cannot adopt a use-it-or-lose-it policy. You can, however, apply a reasonable cap on vacation and cash-out policies.
They must also pay the entire amount of accrued but unused PTO at the termination of the employment relationship.
They must also pay the entire amount of accrued but unused PTO at the termination of the employment relationship.[/quote]
Don't roll the old sick leave into the new PTO plan and then you can do what you want with it, even in California.
I have heard of people designating in writing how much of the PTO is vacation and how much is sick leave, even though it's not distinguished in terms of how it is used. I do not know how that has fared in CA.
Going forward, you can write a policy that says you stop accruing after a capped point. You can also say that the amount awarded in an annual plan is reduced to meet the cap if there's anything left over from the prior year. You can't take away what's been given but, with careful wording, you can fail to give out too much.