No Trip From Vacation Pay back in Vacationland: Beware, Maine Employers! | Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.

In spite of considerable opposition from Maine’s business neighborhood, including the Maine Condition Chamber of Commerce and leaders in the tourism, hospitality, and compact enterprise communities, Governor Janet Mills signed into law Legislative Doc (L.D.) 225, “An Act With regards to the Treatment method of Holiday Time on the Cessation of Work” on April 7, 2022. The legislation amends 26 M.R.S.A. § 626 to have to have every single employer with much more than 10 workforce to shell out its workers, on the cessation of work, “[a]ll unused paid out trip accrued pursuant to the employer’s trip coverage on and after January 1, 2023.”

Apart from making noteworthy economical burdens for enterprises across the condition, L.D. 225 appears to conflict with Maine’s Acquired Compensated Leave legislation and is already generating appreciable confusion for Maine’s organization local community.

The recently enacted regulation does not offer a crystal clear definition of what leave it covers, apart from “unused paid getaway accrued pursuant to the employer’s trip plan.” According to written testimony delivered to the Maine Legislature by the Maine Point out Chamber of Commerce, Maine Department of Labor, and HospitalityMaine, a range of Maine’s greater companies are performing to explain their paid out time off (PTO) applications and shifting away from adaptable PTO, which positive aspects employers and staff members alike, to independent sick go away and trip leave insurance policies. Other companies are revising their guidelines to provide for “earned leave” or “personal time.” The new law’s provisions also fail to deal with employers’ capability to established once-a-year caps on carryover of unused compensated go away.

Under L.D. 225, employers with “vacation policies” would look to be needed to spend unused, accrued family vacation fork out to workforce discharged for misconduct, which includes theft, assault, or other violations of office insurance policies.

With the enactment of L.D. 225, Maine’s new trip pay back legislation, Maine turns into one of only a handful of states, which include California, Colorado, and Massachusetts, mandating the payment of unused, accrued getaway on an employee’s separation from employment. Since the passage of Maine’s Acquired Paid Go away law, the Maine Office of Labor studies having fielded a considerably enhanced amount of inquiries from businesses and employees on the subject of paid depart, and it expects this number to maximize exponentially with the enactment of Maine’s family vacation shell out regulation.