Help Wanted: Redrafting time-off policies

DEAR CARRIE: I am on a committee that is redrafting our company's time-off policy. Employees currently are allowed to carry over vacation, sick and personal time from year to year. The current policy states that they lose all accumulated sick leave when they leave the company but are paid for accumulated vacation time.

Most employees have been with the company for more than 15 years and have accrued large amounts of time.

We want to change some of that and have many questions: What do labor laws stipulate about changing a time-off policy? Can the company legally take away accrued time? Can we set up a policy that will limit the number of days employees can carry over? Can we limit the amount of paid time off used in any given year? And do we have to pay for unused vacation days when an employee leaves?

-- PTO Redo

DEAR PTO: Companies have a lot of latitude on this issue since neither federal nor New York labor laws require companies to offer benefits.

"Employers who elect to offer paid time off may impose conditions, including restricting employees' rights to carry over unused days or electing not to pay out unused days at termination," said Ellen Storch, counsel at Kaufman Dolowich Voluck & Gonzo in Woodbury.

But state labor law comes into play once a company offers benefits. For example, an employer must notify employees of its benefits policy in writing, Storch said.

As for changing the policy, she says, "New York law does not address the circumstances under which an employer may change a policy on paid time off."

But she stresses, "It is advisable, however, that employers who decide to change their paid-time-off policy give employees reasonable notice of the impending change, so that, for example, employees who have accrued a number of paid days off may have the opportunity to use them, or even receive compensation for them before the new policy becomes effective."

DEAR CARRIE: I heard that women who collect Social Security benefits under their retired spouses' Social Security while the women are still working and before they reach their full retirement age can later collect full benefits based on their own work history when they reach full retirement age. Is this true?

-- Benefits & Marriage

DEAR BENEFITS & MARRIAGE: That is untrue, according to the Social Security Administration and a local attorney.

If the younger spouse isn't a widow (or widower), she or he would have to apply for both the spousal benefit and a benefit based on her or his own record at the same time, the agency said. And Social Security will give the person the higher of those two amounts.

"Social Security will always give you the higher of these two benefits if you apply prior to your full retirement age," said attorney Troy G. Rosasco, of Turley, Redmond, Rosasco & Rosasco in Ronkonkoma.

And the amount would be reduced for life if the younger spouse hasn't reached full retirement age.

A person's full-retirement age varies according to the year when he or she was born. People can elect early-retirement Social Security payments beginning at age 62.

For more on state law and paid-time off, go to http://www.labor.ny.gov/workerprotection/laborstandards/faq.shtm; for more on spouses and Social Security benefits go to http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/yourspouse.htm