In spite of sizeable opposition from Maine’s enterprise local community, which include the Maine Point out Chamber of Commerce and leaders in the tourism, hospitality, and little company communities, Governor Janet Mills signed into legislation Legislative Document (L.D.) 225, “An Act Regarding the Cure of Vacation Time on the Cessation of Work” on April 7, 2022. The regulation amends 26 M.R.S.A. § 626 to need each individual employer with a lot more than ten personnel to pay back its workforce, on the cessation of employment, “[a]ll unused paid getaway accrued pursuant to the employer’s family vacation policy on and following January 1, 2023.”
Aside from creating notable financial burdens for organizations across the state, L.D. 225 appears to conflict with Maine’s Earned Paid out Depart law and is by now making significant confusion for Maine’s small business neighborhood.
The freshly enacted law does not supply a clear definition of what go away it addresses, aside from “unused paid family vacation accrued pursuant to the employer’s getaway policy.” According to published testimony provided to the Maine Legislature by the Maine Point out Chamber of Commerce, Maine Section of Labor, and HospitalityMaine, a amount of Maine’s bigger companies are working to explain their compensated time off (PTO) applications and shifting away from versatile PTO, which advantages businesses and workforce alike, to independent ill leave and holiday leave procedures. Other businesses are revising their policies to supply for “earned leave” or “personal time.” The new law’s provisions also fail to address employers’ capacity to set yearly caps on carryover of unused paid leave.
Beneath L.D. 225, businesses with “vacation policies” would appear to be demanded to spend unused, accrued holiday spend to workers discharged for misconduct, which include theft, assault, or other violations of workplace guidelines.
With the enactment of L.D. 225, Maine’s new trip pay out law, Maine becomes one particular of only a handful of states, including California, Colorado, and Massachusetts, mandating the payment of unused, accrued holiday vacation on an employee’s separation from work. Considering the fact that the passage of Maine’s Earned Paid Depart law, the Maine Department of Labor experiences possessing fielded a significantly increased variety of inquiries from employers and workers on the matter of paid out go away, and it expects this range to improve exponentially with the enactment of Maine’s getaway pay back legislation.
© 2022, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., All Rights Reserved.National Regulation Evaluation, Volume XII, Variety 108