Vacation – use it or lose it

[vickyp]

#89823

Forum: Community

Our employees get vacation credits amounts to more than what the Employment Standards Act requires. Can we apply the “use it or lose it” rule to any vacation earned but not used that is above the ESA minimum? For example – an employee earns 4 weeks vacation for the calendar year, and per the ESA they should have a minimum of 2 weeks vacations. The Employee used 3 weeks vacation (which is above the ESA), can we apply the ‘use it or lose it” to the additional week not used?

[vickyp]

#90247

Under employment standards laws, employees can forfeit their vacation time by failing to take vacation but they can’t forfeit their vacation pay. This is an important distinction that’s often misunderstood. Many employers have a “use it or lose it” policy with respect to vacation. But this simply means that an employer can require an employee to take vacation time or lose the vacation time; but it doesn’t relieve the employer of its obligation to pay the employee the vacation time accrued.
Example: If a salary worker who’s entitled to 2 weeks’ vacation time per year fails to take and isn’t forced by his/her employer to take that 2 weeks’ vacation time, the employer is still required to provide the employee an extra 2 weeks’ pay.
 
Vacation Pay Policy
Vacation Policy – Federal

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