Suspend EE using Accrued Leave

CPK · March 2008

Staffing is tough in our police department and the chief has asked if we could reduce an EE's vacation leave balance by 32 hours rather than having the officer off 4 days w/o pay. We are following all disciplinary procedures and the discipline is consistent for similar violations.

Has any one done this before? Any laws that I'm not aware of or missing? Thanks (in advance) for your time and response.

KB

joannie · March 2008

We have had managers who wanted to do this rather than have the ee off for the required number of days, but our discipline policy specifies vacation time can not be used to offset disciplinary suspension. While, I am unsure if this would be violating any laws, if your officers are unionized, there may be something in the agreement that prohibits taking the vacation pay in place of the suspension. If staffing were not a problem in the future, would you be willing to allow other ee's to give up vacation time instead of taking the suspension?

Just my opinion, but I don't think this is a good idea.

CPK · March 2008

Thanks for your response. I have checked state code and with others and have found nothing that specifically prohibits an employer from doing so. I am too keen on the idea, but senior mgmt is very good in administering benefits and discipline consistently. So to answer your questions, we would follow policy and base our decision on staffing not Title VII protected classes...until the courts say otherwise.

KB

davids · March 2008

We have imposed a reduction in vacation hours as a form of discipline. I agree that the upside is that you don't have to suspend the employee and then pay another officer overtime to cover the shift. In our situation, this type of disciplinary action was allowed under the terms of our collective bargaining agreement. I think you need to check your CBA to determine whether or not it's allowed.

sonny · March 2008

Interesting concept. . .what do you do if they don't have the time to cover the suspension?

CPK · March 2008

...Then it is suspension without pay. We have done this a few times. We are using staffing as the only criteria to determine if reducing an employee's accrued leave balance is acceptable. When people are off, other employees pick up the workload and does affect morale, etc. Some employees have asked for leave to be reducing rather than be suspended with no pay. We have said no before because staffing was not an issue. We are city government and the race is coming to town and we can’t afford to have people off during this time. Some employees look for ways to get out work during race week and this would be another possible loop hole if we allowed it. Initially, I have not been too keen on this practice, but we have been consistent and non-discriminative. I know of others that have done this for years.

I have looked at state code and other laws with no luck in finding anything specific. We don't have a union, so that doesn't affect us. I had some extra time and thought I would seek feedback on a forum. It has been helpful.

KB

Susan in La · March 2008

I work for a state government agency and what we do is a reduction in pay equal to the number of days suspension. If they make $15 an hour and we want to suspended them 8 hours, or $120, we reduce their pay to $10 for 12 hours and they work at the lower pay. This keeps them at work and also takes something away as discipline. Our state Civil Service Rules would not allow us to charge leave time when they are at work.

CPK · March 2008

We considered that approach, but didn't want to violate any FLSA laws by reducing an salaried employee's pay below the FLSA threshold or state wage deduction guidelines which are plentiful. It would have required a little more effort. While the employee is at work, they are paid for working, but we just remove or delete vacation time from a balance. The employee is not being paid from vacation time.

I was glad to see your approach, because I was wanting to do this initially...until I read our state's wage reduction laws.

KB

davids · March 2008

We also use the option of reducing salary. We are a municipality; but I also did this when I worked for the state. Again, our collective bargaining agreements specifically provided for a salary reduction as a form of discipline. We, however, do not relate the reduction in pay to the dollar value of a suspension. We are on a "step" salary structure; so we reduce the salary by one, two or more steps for one, two or more months depending on the severity of the employee's actions.

sonny · July 2008

David. . do you or any others have any language from a CBA that you would be willing to share? We sat down with our Police this am and in addition to asking for the WORLD they brought this concept up, sort of. .

Am particular interested in taking their vacation time in liue of days off.

Thanks in advance.

davids · July 2008

"Loss of vacation time" is listed as one form of discipline along with "reduction in pay" and "suspension with loss of pay."

sonny · July 2008

Thanks much

Suspend EE using Accrued Leave

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