Labor & Employment Law

Too Busy to Take Vacation? Survey Says... $6.3 billion to employers

By Michael Fitzgibbon

The Financial Post's article Too Busy to Take a Vacation describes our "relentless trend" to leave unused vacation time on the table with the effect of "putting $6.3 billion back into the hands of employers, or 41 million discarded vacation days nationwide, according to a study by Ipsos-Reid and Expedia.ca."

While the article is interesting, in itself, it also emphasizes an employment law risk/issue - can an employer, in effect, not pay the employee for unused vacation?  For example, the employee is given 4 weeks vacation per year and only uses 3 weeks, can the employer not pay out the 1 week at the end of the vacation year under a "use it or lose it" approach?

As is often the case, carefully drafted policies and contracts can assist in answering these questions along with consideration of applicable legislation.

Full post as published by Thoughts from a Management Lawyer on June 26, 2008 (boomark / email).