California: Employers May Prohibit Employees From Earning Vacation in Their First Year
APPLIES TO All Employers with CA Employees |
EFFECTIVE July 28, 2017 |
QUESTIONS? Contact HR On-Call |
Although California does not require an employer to provide employees with vacation benefits, employers who elect to do so are obliged to pay attention to a host of regulations. For example, California forbids employers from causing employees to forfeit earned vacation time (e.g., by way of “use it or lose it” policies), because vacation benefits are considered a form of vested wages. In a recent case, however, a California Court of Appeal stated that employers may prohibit employees from earning any vacation in their first year of employment, provided that the vacation policy is properly worded.