Recently Asked Questions (RAQs)

Our Library has a CSEA Collective Bargaining Agreement with Employees, and individual employment contracts with administrators. All documents codify how many accrued vacation days and sick days an individual employee can “sell back” or be reimbursed for upon separation from service (resignation or retirement). The documents do not address remaining accrued time that employees have earned during their years of service. In NYS labor law are there any regulations stipulating how the employer must handle the balance of accrued time? Does it have a monetary value? May the employee submit for the balance of vacation time off before their separation from service? Are there any circumstances where the employee would have to forfeit their earned/accrued vacation time?

I read the response to the question of whether certain types of libraries must abide by the minimum wage in New York (https://wnylrc.org/raq/minimum-wage-public-library-employees). This includes the mandatory minimum salary paid to professional employees in certain categories who are exempt from overtime, most of whom (in libraries) have master’s degrees. I have to admit, I’m really disturbed that any entity in NYS can get away with paying as low as the federal minimum wage, given what the cost of living has climbed to.

You state that this is legal [for certain libraries] but any library considering this option [should engage an attorney with malpractice insurance to review that library's status under the law and provide a written opinion pertaining only to that library] before embarking on this path. Can you also speak to the potential downsides of choosing to pay less than the NYS minimum wage and minimum exempt salary if you discover you are allowed to do so? Thanks so much.

Are there any laws around a supervisor or manager telling others the reason for an employee being out on leave? Does the answer change if the employee isn't using sick time, but [has] disclosed why they were unavailable for additional hours during non-contract time?

Background: On Jan 1, 2023 we instituted several changes to employee time off accrual policies. We constructed the new vacation accrual policies carefully and gave some of our more senior staff "legacy policies" in order to not decrease any current employee's vacation accrual rate. However, we DID institute a cap on the number of vacation hours an employee could bank at any given time (1/2 a year for FT staff, and 1/4 yr FTE for PT staff). We did this for two reasons: 1) to mitigate financial risk to our library in the event of unforeseen separations, when we pay out any unused vacation time, and 2) to encourage staff to take regular vacations, which prevents burnout and encourages us to understand each other's job responsibilities better when covering for someone else.

Unfortunately, the vacation cap has had some unintended consequences. Some staff members are reticent to take vacation and are bumping up against the cap each month, which effectively means their compensation is being reduced. Also, our PT staff work varying number of hours per week (20-32) but we don't prorate the PT vacation cap (for logistical reasons), which makes it difficult for staff who work close to FT hours to save up enough time to take a longer vacation, or multiple vacations in a relatively short period.

My legal question is: If we were to change our time off accrual policy to allow staff to bank as much vacation as they like but specify that upon separation they could only be paid out 'x' number of hours, could we be accused of wage theft?

The library (school district public library without a union or a bargaining agreement and less than 50 employees) offers paid sick leave for most employees. However, based on what we have learn we have paid people, without it coming off of their earned sick time, if they are told to quarantine because they have been exposed to the virus. Does the same hold true for someone who is out sick because they have the virus? 
 
I have looked at the Ask a Lawyer FAQs, the various federal and state sites and issues of the HR Specialist Employment newsletter and do not see a clear answer.