PA- Questions on Vacation "policies"

[macgirlee]

What is the name of your state? PA

1) Is a "use it or lose it" vacation policy legal in PA? We have rules about how much "earned" vacation can be carried over from year to year, and if you leave the company you are paid for all "earned, not taken" time, but if you carry the maximum time over from year to year and still have earned, but untaken time, can you lose it or are they required to pay you for it?

2) We have standard amounts of vacation time for all employees (2 weeks initially, 3 weeks after 4 years, etc). Some of our employees are required to use one week of their two during a manditory plant shutdown between XMas and New Years (or take it as unpaid, but that is strongly discouraged). Is it permissible to have different policies like this based on job function or location?

3) Is there any time-sensitive notification requirement if the policy in #2 is to change? (For example, after Thanksgiving, the company decided to not have the plant shutdown, due to an increase in production. No vacation was permitted from that time through the end of the year, so employees had to carry over a week into the new year. This was not a problem except for those that had "too much" vacation left over, and they "lost" "earned PTO" because they exceeded the maximum carry-over amount. Was that legal?)

 

[cbg]

1. Yes, use it or lose it policies are legal in PA.

2. Yes, you may have different vacation policies for different job descriptions.

3. No, you can change it whenever you want. Yes, it was legal, although under the circumstances I think the company should have amended their policy for those employees.

The key, in PA, is to follow your policy. PA law does not require that you offer paid vacation in the first place, or to pay it out/carry it over in the second place. But it does require you to do what you say you're going to do. A temporary, limited change for the example in #3 would have been all right since it would have resulted in a benefit to the employee. But before you implement any permanent changes to the policy, you'd better put them in writing AND be sure they are distributed to the employees.