Q&A: Lost Vacation Pay Is Recoverable
Published by James Peters January 4th, 2007 in Q&A, Wages : OtherQ: I have worked for a company over 20 years and now I am retiring. I never took a vacation the last ten years I worked there. Each year I lost all of the vacation time I did not use. My son told me that is illegal in California. Is that true?
–Need a Vacation (CA)
A: Your son is correct. In California, so-called “use-it-or-lose-it” vacation policies are illegal. Once an employee accrues (earns) their vacation time, they cannot lose it and it must be paid out at the end of employment.
Recent Case Helps Employees
A recent California court decision has fixed a quirk in California law that used to only let employees recover four years of accrued but unpaid vacation time. The court in that decision held that when an employee leaves employment with an employer, he can recover all vacation time he accrued but never received payment for during his employment.
In your case, this is a substantial development, because you can now recover vacation time accrued but not used over the last twenty years.
Additional Penalties
In addition to your vacation wages, you may be able to recover additional money, such as attorney’s fees, interest on your unpaid wages and “waiting time” penalties.
In California, employees whose employer does not pay out all of their vacation pay at the time their employment ends can recover “waiting time” penalties. Under this law, employees can recover one day of wages for each day their wages go unpaid for a maximum of thirty days’ additional wages.
Also keep in mind that these are calendar days not workdays. So, over the course of 30 days the penalties would actually equal approximately six weeks of wages.
“Q&A” posts are based on actual submissions by potential clients. The names have been changed unless permission to print the names has been granted. Fact patterns may be slightly altered to make the issues and language clearer.
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Hello,
I was trying to find information regarding employee rights regarding vacation pay. I have worked for my employer for 7 years and never taken a vacation. I decided it was time to switch jobs and asked for my vacation pay. They said they would give it to me. They decided to give me half a weeks pay for those seven years. Every other employee was getting two weeks a year. Who do i need to talk to.
@Cristof: It certainly sounds like you indeed have a claim for vacation pay, but you should call our offices or another employee-rights attorney for more information.
I do field work for my company and am on the road over 240 days per year, when I return home and need to see the doctor or attend any various appointment, my employer selects a “sick” day or “vacation” day and assigns it as used. Is this fair for them to utilize without my permission?
@Mike Roberts: Generally, if you are salaried your employer can do this in FULL DAY increments only. Arguably, still if you work on the weekend to make up for it you could be entitled to a full week of salary. If you do any work at all during a day you must be paid for that day’s salary in California, not vacation/sick time.