Amended Maine Regulation Will Need Getaway Payout When Work Ends

Maine’s governor not too long ago signed H.P. 160 – L.D. 225, amending the state’s closing wages statute to require that “[a]ll unused paid out holiday vacation accrued pursuant to the employer’s getaway policy on and just after January 1, 2023 have to be paid out to the personnel on cessation of employment.” The modification delivers that personal companies with 11 or a lot more workforce need to pay all unused trip to a separated worker at the cessation of employment regardless of the employer’s coverage payment have to manufactured in entire no later than the employee’s upcoming proven payday. The modifications just take outcome July 19, 2022.

The payout necessity will not implement to general public employers. Moreover, if a collective bargaining arrangement governs an employee’s employment and addresses getaway payout when employment ends, the CBA, not the statute, will figure out vacation payout needs. These new provisions also implement when a firm sells its organization below a separate component of the statute, managing a sale of a small business the identical as any other “cessation of work.”

With these amendments, Maine joins a modest group of states that restrict an employer’s skill not to pay out out holiday when work finishes, and an even more unique list of states whose prohibition towards holiday forfeiture arrives by using a statute or regulation alternatively than a courtroom selection (including, but not constrained to, California, Illinois, and Rhode Island). Moreover, by advantage of these amendments, Maine very likely will grow to be the initial jurisdiction in the United States with a commonly relevant obligatory work-safeguarded paid go away regulation to demand a payout when work finishes.

Maine’s required Acquired Paid Go away law (EPL) does not deal with the finish-of-work payout concern, but the polices applying EPL incorporate language that is virtually similar to that in the last wages statute:

Presently, in accordance to the EPL FAQs, how the Maine Department of Labor applies its rule aligns with pre-modification benchmarks in the last wages statute:

If you at this time have a getaway policy that states the unused equilibrium of holiday time will be paid at the time of separation (and you really don’t have a separate Acquired Paid out Depart policy) then you will be needed to pay out the unused family vacation and Earned Compensated Leave balances.

If you have a holiday vacation plan that states the unused getaway equilibrium is not paid at the time of separation, then the Attained Compensated Go away equilibrium will not have to have to be paid.

Therefore, despite the fact that the latest DOL rules say that EPL is lost at separation except if the employer has a plan stating otherwise, it appears the new modification to the final wages statute might render this kind of guidelines inapplicable. The Maine DOL must with any luck , provide steering on the romance in between the amended final wages statute and the EPL legislation.

The amended regulation also treats steps for unpaid accrued vacation the same as actions for any other unpaid wages. This indicates that a judgment in favor of an personnel ought to include the unpaid holiday, desire, an additional volume equivalent to two times the amount of money of the unpaid getaway as liquidated damages, costs, and attorney’s service fees.

With these amendments to the remaining wages statute, businesses with Maine functions should really observe the ME DOL web-site for updates to its EPL procedures and FAQs. In addition, they must think about examining, and possibly revising, their vacation and/or EPL policies now to carry them in line with Maine’s amended last wages statute.