Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Re: Vacations

Employers have no duty to provide vacation or sick leave benefits. But, if an employer does provide benefits, it must comply with certain leagal requirements. The key to vacation, is that it is earned as you work just as wages. So an employer can not take away wages or vacation you have earned. If the vacation is not taken, it will continue to "be on the books" until it is taken as time off with pay or the employer elects to pay it. It must be paid at the rate of pay in force at the time of the vacation, not when earned. Thus, if an employee earns vacation when paid minimum wage, but takes the vacation pay several years later when his pay has been increased, the vacation pay is paid at the higher rate.

You can look at this site for lots of information regarding vacation pay - make sure you are looking at California law which differs from other states or you can look at the California Labor Commissioner's site and search the Enforcement Manual at http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/DLSEManual/dlse_enfcmanual.pdf

Re: Vacations

There is an article (guest) on my website about the CA vacation accural rules: http://www.wlg-ca.com/FAQvacation.html , with citations.

With respect to sick days, it depends if they're "use them or lose them" or "vested and accruing". This is something that should be addressed in an employer's employee handbook or benefits summary. Keep in mnd sick days aren't treated the same as vacation, but PTO days might be depending on how the PTO benefit is offered.

Tom Walker