Employers' vacation time policies.
Ed Canning Feb 20, 2017
ANSWER: Immediately adopt a policy which states, “All employees must take two weeks off per year. Employees entitled to more than two weeks’ vacation per year may defer the excess weeks for a maximum of six months past the end of the year in which the vacation was to have been taken. If the excess weeks have not been taken by the end of six months they are no longer available and vacation pay will not be paid for any weeks over the two week minimum to which the employee is entitled.”
You don’t have to provide a six-month extension. Two weeks is the minimum required by the
Employment Standards Act. Regardless of whether or not an employee has accumulated enough vacation pay to cover the two weeks, it is up to you to force them to take the two weeks off. Anything over the two-week minimum required by the
Employment Standards Act is subject to any policies you want to develop. What you see above is a “use it or lose it” policy. It is quite common, especially for smaller employers. Allowing vacation pay to accumulate indefinitely can be hard on your cash flow, especially if it is suddenly cashed in by a terminated or resigning employee.