(A) All full time employees are eligible for paid vacation based on the length of continuous service with the County. Certain eligibility requirements and guidelines apply.
(B) The County provides two schedules for earning vacation:
(1) Employees hired on or before 6/10/2003
(2) Employees hired after 6/10/2003
(C) Earning Vacation - Vacation is earned based on the length of service of the employee and his/her anniversary date.
(D) Vacation Hired On or Before 6/10/2003
(1) First vacation: During the first year of service, an employee earns one vacation day for each full month of service up to a maximum of 5 (five) days. These days will accumulate for use in the following calendar year and after the employee's anniversary date. Employees may not use vacation during their first year of service.
(2) Vacation in subsequent years:
(a) Beginning with the second full year of employment (January 1st of that year), an employee will be eligible for vacation based on the following schedule to a maximum of 30 (thirty) days.
(b) Beginning with an employee's:
1. Second through five years of employment: Ten (10) days per calendar year
2. Sixth year of employment: Fifteen (15) days per calendar year
3. Seventh year of employment: Sixteen days (16) days per calendar year
4. Eighth year of employment: Seventeen days (17) days per calendar year
5. Ninth year of employment: Eighteen days (18) days per calendar year
6. Tenth year of employment: Nineteen days (19) days per calendar year
7. Eleventh year of employment: Twenty days (20) days per calendar year
8. Twelfth year of employment: Twenty-one days (21) days per calendar year
9. Thirteenth year of employment: Twenty-two days (22) days per calendar year
10. Fourteenth year of employment: Twenty-three days (23) days per calendar year
11. Fifteenth year of employment: Twenty-four days (24) days per calendar year
12. Sixteenth year of employment: Twenty-five days (25) days per calendar year
13. Seventeenth year of employment: Twenty-six days (26) days per calendar year
14. Eighteenth year of employment: Twenty-seven days (27) days per calendar year
15. Nineteenth year of employment: Twenty-eight days (28) days per calendar year
16. Twentieth year of employment: Twenty-nine days (29) days per calendar year
17. Twenty-first year of employment: Thirty days (30) days per calendar year
(E) Vacation Hired After 6/10/2003
(1) First vacation: During the first year of service, an employee earns one vacation day for each full month of service up to a maximum of 5 (five) days. These days will accumulate for use in the following calendar year after the employee's anniversary date. Employees may not use vacation during their first year of service.
(2) Vacation in subsequent years:
(a) Beginning with the second full year of employment (January 1st of that year), an employee will be eligible for vacation based on the following schedule to a maximum of 25 (twenty-five) days.
(b) Beginning with an employee's:
1. Second through five years of employment: Ten (10) days per calendar year
2. Sixth year of employment: Eleven (11) days per calendar year
3. Seventh year of employment: Twelve days (12) days per calendar year
4. Eighth year of employment: Thirteen days (13) days per calendar year
5. Ninth year of employment: Fourteen days (14) days per calendar year
6. Tenth year of employment: Fifteen days (15) days per calendar year
7. Eleventh year of employment: Sixteen days (16) days per calendar year
8. Twelfth year of employment: Seventeen days (17) days per calendar year
9. Thirteenth year of employment: Eighteen days (18) days per calendar year
10. Fourteenth year of employment: Nineteen days (19) days per calendar year
11. Fifteenth year of employment: Twenty days (20) days per calendar year
12. Sixteenth year of employment: Twenty-One days (21) days per calendar year
13. Seventeenth year of employment: Twenty-Two days (22) days per calendar year
14. Eighteenth year of employment: Twenty-Three days (23) days per calendar year
15. Nineteenth year of employment: Twenty-Four days (24) days per calendar year
16. Twentieth year of employment: Twenty-Five days (25) days per calendar year
17. Twenty-first year of employment: Twenty-Five days (25) days per calendar year
(3) Forced consolidation. This policy shall affect only those employees who are hired by the County due a transfer of responsibility from a municipality to the County and required by State law, the following provisions shall apply:
(a) Employees with less than two (2) years of service with an existing municipality shall be subject to the regular vacation policy of Lake County Government.
(b) Employees with at least two (2) years but less than five (5) years of service with an existing municipality shall receive ten (10) days of vacation after ninety (90) days of service and pro-rated during the first year of service. The employee’s vacation earnings shall transfer to the county’s regular vacation schedule beginning with January of the employee’s sixth (6th) year of service.
(c) Employees with at least five (5) years of service less than ten (10) years of service with an existing municipality shall receive twelve (12) days of vacation after ninety (90) days of service and pro-rated during the first year of service. The employee’s vacation endings shall transfer to the county’s regular vacation schedule beginning with January of the employee’s eighth (8th) year of service.
(d) Employees with at least ten (10) years of service with an existing municipality shall receive fifteen (15) days of vacation after ninety (90) days of service and pro-rated during the greater of service and pro-rated during the first year of service. The employee’s vacation earnings shall transfer to the county’s regular vacation schedule beginning with January of the employee’s eleventh (11th) year of service.
(e) Employees with at least fifteen (15) years of service with an existing municipality shall receive seventeen (17) days of vacation after ninety (90) days of service and pro-rated during the first year of service. The employee’s vacation endings shall transfer to the county’s regular vacation schedule beginning with January of the employee’s thirteenth (13th) year of service.
(f) Employees covered by this policy shall not advance (outside of this policy) in the regular county vacation policy until completing the years of service as noted above at which time, the employee will be converted to the regular vacation schedule.
(g) The aforementioned vacation shall be selected by the employee’s start date with the county. No other consideration for seniority shall be granted. Vacation shall be scheduled accordingly by the Department head.
(F) General Guidelines
(1) Vacation time is not granted until earned. Vacations shall be scheduled within each department pursuant to the needs of the department and the ability of the remaining staff to do the work in a proper manner. Vacation should be taken in no more than one week increments unless approved by the department head and appropriate elected official. A vacation may be split into blocks of time less than one week providing that such a schedule does not hamper office functions. A scheduled vacation may be changed in case of an emergency.
(2) Department heads shall have the authority to designate certain time periods in the year during which no vacations may be taken if the prohibition is based upon the necessity of operations.
(3) Generally, vacation time must be taken in the year that it was provided. However, an employee, with the approval of their department head, may carryover up to one week of vacation provided that the time is used prior to April 30th of the following year.
(4) Time of service by the employee is transferable between County departments and/or County divisions. The value of a vacation is determined at the time of use, rather than when the vacation was earned.
(5) Whenever a holiday falls during an employee's scheduled week of vacation, he/she does not need to use a vacation day for that holiday.
(6) If an employee becomes ill or injured while on vacation, the scheduled vacation time shall be counted as vacation days rather than sick days. If the illness/disability continues beyond the scheduled vacation time, the sick leave allowances (if any) shall begin on the first scheduled working day after the scheduled vacation.
(7) If an employee is terminated for any reason, all unused vacation will be paid to the employee (or in the event of an employee death, to the survivor).
(G) Use of Vacation In the Event of Illness/Disability
(1) In the event that an employee exhausts all of his/her short term disability benefits, FMLA leave or sick or personal leave, that employee must then utilize any unused vacation. Upon exhausting any unused vacation, the employee may become eligible for COBRA benefits.
(2) During a non-paid leave of absence, vacation time will not accrue. For each full month an employee is on a leave of absence, the employee will not earn vacation days which would otherwise be taken the following year. The following schedule shall be applied when calculating vacation time for an employee who was on a non-paid leave of absence.
Amount Eligible To Earn
|
Amount Deducted For Each Full Month Absent
|
Two weeks | .5 day |
Three weeks | 1.0 day |
Four weeks | 1.5 days |
Five weeks | 2.0 days |
Six weeks | 2.5 days |
(3) This provision does not affect vacation time previously earned.
(H) Conversion to Flexible Schedule - If an employee is assigned to a compressed or flexible schedule (a schedule where an employee normally works more than eight hours a day or fewer than five workdays per week), that employee's vacation days are converted to hours rather than days. For example, an employee who has earned two weeks of vacation is entitled to eighty (80) hours of paid vacation time.