Liable to pay vacation out in MD?

[lovetosing920]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? MD

My company's handbook states that if you leave the company for any reason, they will not compensate you for unused vacation time. Is this legal in the state of MD?

The company that I work for deals primarily with vendors and we have contract to hire agreements. We have many employees that work with us for three months and then get hired on by our vendors. The problem I am seeing is that according to our policies, employees cannot take vacation within the first 90 days and when they leave, they are not being paid out for the vacation time they have accumulated. Please advise.

 

[Beth3]

My company's handbook states that if you leave the company for any reason, they will not compensate you for unused vacation time. Is this legal in the state of MD? No. MD reg's require that separating employees be paid for any earned but unused vacation pay.

The company that I work for deals primarily with vendors and we have contract to hire agreements. We have many employees that work with us for three months and then get hired on by our vendors. The problem I am seeing is that according to our policies, employees cannot take vacation within the first 90 days and when they leave, they are not being paid out for the vacation time they have accumulated. Since we don't know what your company's vacation policy is, how can we comment? If, for example, the policy is that employees earn one week of paid vacation after one year of employment, then someone leaving at any time before having worked a full year of service wouldn't be entitled to any vacation payout.

 

[cbg]

Actually, I thought I remembered there being something new in the MD regs, and if there is a written policy of forfeit of vacation that is communicated to the employees ahead of time, they may not be required to pay it.

http://www.dllr.state.md.us/labor/wagepay/wpunusedvacpay.htm

 

[lovetosing920]

Vacation Policy- MD

Beth,

Thank you for your response. Let me be a bit clearer. My company's handbook states that after an employee completes their 90 day introductory period, they become eligible for paid vacation time. Employees accrue 1.54 hours of paid vacation time per pay period (bi-weekly). So, in three months they do accumulate some vacation.

THANKS!

 

[Beth3]

No, they first accrue vacation when they have completed three months of employment, even if it is retro-actively calculated. If I were constructing your policy, there is no way I would pay out any vacation time to anyone who left in under three months of employment. (Actually, I'd change it so that I wouldn't pay out vacation to anyone who had worked less than a year.)

P.S. Please check out cbg's link. That may well be more accurate than my synopsis materials on each State's requirements on payment of vacation upon termination.