Vacation Pay ??

What is the name of your state? IN

My husband started a job on 2/7/00. He was layed off on 8/23/01 then called back to work on 12/10/01. In January of 2002 his hire date was changed to 5/30/00. At the end of May of 2002 he was awarded his yearly 40 hours of vacation. He was layed off again on 8/14/02. He found a new job while layed off and informed employer he would be quitting to take job with new company. He also requested his remaining 30 hours of vacation pay. They informed him that the check would be mailed to him. Two weeks past with no check. Husband went to former employer to inquire about vacation pay and was told the following: "No vacation pay owed due to the fact that you have not been back to work for a year from 1st layoff.

Can they do this? I thought if you earned the vacation the company owes you the money when you leave.

In Indiana, although some courts have interpreted vacation pay as wages owed at termination, there is no law to that effect. I suspect that if the company has a consistantly followed policy that an employee has to have been at work for a year before vacation is paid out, it would probably stand.

You can always call the IN DOL and see what they say. They've probably got more recent court decisions available to them than I have.

Indiana

I went to the IN DOL website and found this in the FAQ section:

"When I leave my employment, is my former employer required to pay me for any accrued vacation time?

Yes. The Indiana Court of Appeals has found that an agreement to give vacation pay to employees is considered a form of compensation for services just like hourly wages. Vacation pay is additional wages, earned weekly, where only the time of payment is deferred. As a result, an employee is entitled to a pro rata share of his/her accrued vacation at the time of termination.

However, if there is a company personnel policy or employment contract which states certain conditions under which accrued vacation pay will be given upon termination, the employee must meet those conditions in order to receive their accrued vacation pay."

This is still NOT clear to me.

If husband was paid for the 10 hours of vacation when he took it and they list the remaining 30 hours on his pay stub, isn't he entitled to the accrued vacation time in pay?

Not necessarily. There are two ways an employer can show vacation time (and often which he chooses is simply due to the limitation of commercial payroll software). He can list what the employee will be due if they work the entire year (easier to administrate and easy to understand, unless an employee leaves mid-year, when it becomes hard to understand). It sounds as if that is what your husband's employer is doing. The other way is to show the time adding and subtracting as it accrues or is taken. It's more accurate, but the employees often have a harder time understanding it and it's much harder to administrate.

Rather than looking at the pay stubs, your husband needs to be looking at the employee handbook to see if the policy is described therein. If it is, under the second part of the law you quoted he may be out of luck. If not, under the first part (sounds as if there's been a significant court decision since my source was published) he would be entitled to it, and the IN DOL would be where you would go for assistance.