Board Policy 505 • Vacation

Board Policy No. 505

Title: Vacation

Purpose: To define conditions and provisions of vacation accrual and its use.

Scope: This policy applies to all regular employees.

Policy:

It is the policy of West Florida Electric Cooperative Association, Inc. to provide vacation time to regular employees in the interest of health, morale and efficiency.

1. All regular full-time employees will accrue vacation time as follows:

A. One week (40 hours) after the completion of one (1) year of continuous service.

B. Two weeks (80 hours) after the completion of two (2) years of continuous service.

C. Three weeks (120 hours) after the completion of ten (10) years of continuous service.

D. Four weeks (160 hours) after the completion of twenty (20) years of continuous service.

E. Five weeks (200 hours) after the completion of thirty (30) years of continuous service. Employees hired as of November 1, 2009, will not accrue the fifth week of vacation.

2. Vacation is based upon the accumulated number of completed years of continuous service, except in the case of an authorized unpaid leave of absence.

3. Vacation may be taken by each employee subject to approval in advance of the immediate supervisor. Seniority will prevail with regard to the choice of a vacation periods for vacation requests submitted prior to January 1 of each year. Requests received after January 1 of each year will require employees to give forty-eight (48) hours notice to their immediate supervisor. Vacation shall be scheduled so the scheduled leave of the various employees will be in the best interest of the cooperative and cause the least amount of interruption in the normal routine operation of the cooperative.

4. Certain positions, as designated by management, require a minimum of five (5) consecutive vacation days to be taken each year in accordance with the limits of accrual.

5. Use of vacation while on disability will be coordinated with worker’s compensation disability benefits.

6. An employee must work at least one-hundred twenty (120) hours per month to receive full accrual. Accrual will be reduced proportionately should the time worked be less than one hundred twenty (120) hours per month. For purposes of this policy, any time paid for absence due to holidays, jury duty, or absence for death in the family, sick leave

7. An employee shall not accrue vacation while on worker’s compensation disability benefits. An employee injured on the job and who does not otherwise qualify for vacation accrual by compensated time, upon return to work, will receive vacation accrual on not more than six (6) months absence for such injury.

8. Employees are eligible to accumulate up to a maximum of five hundred twenty (520) hours of vacation which may be carried forward from one (1) calendar year to the next. Employees are not eligible to accumulate any more vacation pay once they accumulate 520 hours, therefore vacation leave balances in excess of 520 hours must be used or sold before December 31 each year. Exceptions for allowing employees to take unused vacation at a later date shall require mutual agreement in writing between the cooperative’s Executive Vice President and CEO and the employee.

9. Employees will have the option of selling eighty (80) hours of accrued vacation at the full rate of pay in December of each year. The Executive Vice President and CEO can approve an employee selling additional hours if he/she exceeds five hundred twenty (520) hours after selling eighty (80) hours.

10. Employees who accumulated more than five hundred twenty (520) hours of vacation prior to February 1, 2022, will not lose any vacation pay as a result of this change in policy. However, they will not be eligible to accumulate any more paid vacation until their total accumulated vacation is less than 520 hours.

11. Upon termination of employment for any cause, an employee may be paid for all accrued and unused vacation in accordance with the limits of accrual.

12. In the event of the death of an employee, the employee’s spouse or his/her estate will be paid all of the deceased employee’s unused vacation at the regular rate of pay.

13. If layoffs occur for lack of work, an employee who did not take accrued vacation time during the vacation year in which the layoff occurred shall be entitled to all accrued and unused vacation in accordance with the limits of accrual.

Exceptions:

Any exceptions to this policy must be approved by the Board of Trustees.

Responsibility:

Implementation of this policy shall be the responsibility of the Executive Vice President and CEO and/or his designated representative.