Leave policy: How much unpaid time off for part-timers?
Question: “Our small company has a Paid Time Off benefit for full-time employees. However, we do not have a policy addressing how much unpaid time off a part-time employee can request. We have a couple of employees who are requesting an inordinate amount of time off. Are there industry guidelines on developing a policy?” — Dawn
Comments
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June 28, 2010 at 12:49 pm
I agree with Katy in that it depends on the type of part-timer. If he/she is a Regular employee (specific work schedule each week with no end date), he/she earns PTO/Vacation Leave. If he/she is ProTem (sporadic or hired for a specific job or length of time) he/she earns none. Our system is based on a ratio of (for most) 1:24 – one hour of leave earned for each 24 hours worked. We changed to this method as “fairer” than a set number of hours per year after noting that employee “X” and employee “Y” earned the same amount of leave even though employee “Y” put in considerably more hours per year. Works well for both employer and employee.
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June 25, 2010 at 4:09 pm
If a part time employee is taking an inordinate amount of unpaid time off, that employee does not need or want the job very much. Part time does not mean the employee works at his or her whim. Hire someone who will be there according to the job description. In today’s economy there should be several qualified candidates available for any part time job.
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June 21, 2010 at 10:38 am
Our company pro-rates vacation from hours worked the previous year for one equivalent week, so if they worked an average of 20 hours last year they receive 20 hours paid this year. For personal time our handbook just says excessive absenteeism is against policy, beyond that it is the managers digression, the reason, and department needs. I orientate to all staff that if I can accommodate I will but that if the coverage is needed it may no be approved, excessive to me is 5-10 days over your paid time off depending on how much you have, I work to keep them withing 3 weeks, so if they have 2 weeks paid time, 5 is the general amount that goes under the radar. But is someone is going through a crisis I accommodate the best that I can.
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June 21, 2010 at 8:52 am
Our company does a pro-rated amount depending on actual hours worked and provided they work at least 20 hours per week. The amount is half of a full time schedule. All time taken is unpaid. Additionally, the amount of time granted also looks at seniority. Ex. FT employee gets 2 weeks vacation in a year, PT employee gets 1 week vacation – unpaid. Whatever you decide to do, make sure that your company writes it up as part of their policy, provide proper advance notice to employees, and ensure it is applied consistently.
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June 20, 2010 at 7:50 pm
In Australia, we have a completely different system. All permanent employees are entitled to 4 weeks annual leave each year, and 10 days personal/sick leave. I work part time, so I am entitled to the equivalent of my 4 weeks off, or 22.5 hours/week paid annual leave.
I guess it would come down to company directive, the number of part time staff and if they are permanent. Our work culture is different in relation to the US and leave, however, I feel the distinction shouldn’t be between part time and full time staff, but between permanent and casual staff. You are more likely to keep permanent staff that know that if they need to take time off or want to have a family holiday, they are not going to be penalized by not being paid for that. It boosts morale within the company. Having been in a position where I was entitled to take unpaid leave, I ended up not taking any unless I absolutely had to because I couldn’t afford to take the time off. This lead to me almost burning out because I had no time to ‘recharge’.
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June 18, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Ours ties into how many hours the person worked in their last anniversary year. We take those hours and divide by 2080 (40 hrs x 52 wks). That gives us their percentage of hours worked compared to a full-timer. They then get that same percentage of the number of days off that a full-timer gets. For example, is someone worked 520 hours, that is 25% of 2080, so they would get 25% of the number of days that a full-timer gets.
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June 18, 2010 at 5:01 pm
At our company you are eligible to receive benefits only if you work 50% time. You figure out the rest by percentage and acrue vacation and sick time at that lower rate, which is much slower than a full time employee but it does accrue something. We get 1 sick day per month as 100% time employees so a 50% time employee would get 50%. Working our first 1-5 years we accrue 10 vacation days a year, 5-10 years accrues 1.5 days a month, 10+ years accrues 2 days a month. It does not mean the day you are hired you have the time already, you accrue it and add it up to bank it for vacations, sick, etc. Less than a 50% time worker does not receive any benefits. This should be written as part of the hire packet so you don’t have to deal with unreasonable requests. And, all vacation time off, paid or not, is subject to the office needs and can be denied if the time is not convenient for the company. If too many people ask for the same time off you can honor requests by seniority or whoever requests the time off first – depends on what the company decides. We also receive a cash out on unused vacation when employment is terminated. Sick time does not cash out.
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June 18, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Our company pro-rates the time off if the person works more than 24 hours a week. For instance, if a person works 32 hours a week, they would get an equal percentage of the full time allowance.
40=32 hours with 2 weeks=1.5 weeks vacation or something like that. (My math is not very good so I hope this makes sense.) -
June 18, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Our PT employees are not given paid time off. If they want time off its unpaid time and at the discretion of the Director.
However, I do know of some other Agencies in the area that do have paid time for part time employees and its a 1/3 of what their full time employees earn.
