Legal Question in Employment Law in New Jersey

If a discharged employee prevails in an illegal discrimination action, the employee can receive an award for wages and benefits lost as a result of the illegal termination. Thus, if it can be established that the employee would have received vacation pay but for the illegal termination, the vacation pay should be part of the award. Kindly note and remember that my response is merely a general comment on the law related to your question, and NOT legal advice or opinion. Also, your question and my response does NOT create an attorney-client relationship between us. You cannot rely upon what I have written, because I do not have all of the information that I need to advise you or render an opinion. Even simple facts you have not shared can completely change my answer. For me to give you legal advice or opinion, you would need to hire me to be your lawyer, and then we would need to discuss this in detail and go over the documents.

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Employees are entitled to be paid for what they have earned to the time of the terminiation. If the employer has a program which provide for payment for unused vacation, then a terminated employee would probably be found to be entiteld pay for vacation that had been earned but not used. If, however, the employer does not pay for unused vacation, then there is no such entitlement at termination.

See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm