San Benito County supervisors Tuesday are set to weigh new caps on vacation accruals for unrepresented employees – including department heads, confidential management and confidential employees.
The board meeting is set for 9 a.m. at the County Administration Building on Fourth Street. Supervisors will consider the following for the unrepresented workers:
– New employees shall not accrue vacation credit in excess of an amount equal to two times the employee’s yearly accrual rate.
– Existing employees with vacation credit less than two times the employee’s yearly accrual rate shall not accrue vacation credit in excess of two times the employee’s yearly rate.
– Existing employees who have accrued vacation credit above two times the employee’s yearly accrual rate shall schedule no less than six days of vacation every month, with at least one day weekly, until the employee’s vacation credit falls below the standard rate.
There are no other new accrual caps in place for other groups. Employees of the San Benito County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the Service Employees International Union and confidential employees already have caps on their vacation hours depending on how long they have been employed by the county.
The Management Employee Group, department heads and managers in law enforcement have no caps on vacation accruals.
More than 400 San Benito County employees had accrued about $5.5 million in unfunded liability for sick, vacation and other time off, according to a Free Lance analysis from July using documents obtained through a public records request.
In total as of July 2011, county employees had accrued 93,520 hours totaling $2.95 million in liability for vacation leave and 121,178 hours, or $1.95 million in liability, for sick time, according to totals on a database dated July 7 breaking down the figures for each eligible employee. Another $500,000 was accrued in administrative leave or compensation from overtime hours, according to the data.
When employees depart, they receive the cash-outs based on their final hourly wages with the county.
The county had four employees with more than $100,000 in liability and 16 in total with more than $50,000 in owed accrual liability, according to the analysis. The top 10 percent in salaries – the 43 highest-paid personnel – account for 28 percent of the total accrual figure.
San Benito County does have limits to some of its workers’ accrued sick and vacation hours. Employees of the San Benito County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the Service Employees International Union and confidential employees have caps on their vacation hours depending on how long they have been employed by the county. The Management Employee Group, department heads and managers in law enforcement have no prior caps on vacation accrual.
For sick leave, all employees can accrue up to 2,000 hours and can cash out half of the figure when they leave.
