Separate Paid Holidays Offered
Independent
continues to review and improve upon the benefits offered to regular full-time
employees. One such benefit reviewed was the PHO program, which includes
any planned or unplanned absences from the office.
Effective
January 1, 2024, Independent will have a separate company paid holiday
allotment in addition to the current PHO program. The addition of the
separate company paid holidays will attract top talent because this increases
the benefits offered by Independent to new hires, boost motivation since
employees know they will be given a day off
without losing wages while improving mental health and increasing productivity.
The
federal guidelines (FLSA) do not require employers to provide time off for
holidays and do not require a higher hourly rate when an employee works on
holidays (unless the hours worked are actual overtime hours – over 40 hours in a
week).
Holiday pay is a benefit that employers are free to offer at their own
discretion.
Effective
January 1, 2024, the PHO limit will also
reduce from 260 to 212 hours, but the new caveat is that only 172 hours can
carry forward in the next year. Yes, there will be a ‘use it or lose it’
provision added to the policy. Here is how the new PHO/Holiday Policy
will work:
Holidays
Independent
provides employees time off for the following holidays: New Year’s Day
- Martin Luther King Birthday - Washington’s Birthday - Memorial Day -
Juneteenth National Independence Day - Independence Day - Labor Day - Columbus
Day - Veterans Day - Thanksgiving Day - Christmas Day
- Regular full-time employees
will receive holiday pay. Holiday pay
is paid at the employee’s normal rate of pay and based on their normally
scheduled work hours. For hourly employees, time off for holiday
does not count when determining overtime for that specific week.
- Full time employees on vacation
or excused absence will receive the holiday pay.
- There is no PHO accrual for the
holiday when used.
- Time off is to occur on the
actual holiday. With prior management approval, an employee may
take the paid holiday on another day within the pay period in which the
holiday occurs.
Printing Operations
- For the printing operations
only, if/when a regular full-time, non-exempt (hourly) employee is
scheduled by their manager to work on the holiday, the employee will be
paid time and a half for the hours worked.
- The manager will make inipayroll@ininusa.org aware in advance of the scheduled full-time employees
who are scheduled to work on the holidays.
- When an employee from the
printing operations works on a holiday, the time worked is counted when
determining overtime for the week.
- The employee who works on a
holiday, cannot use another day within that pay period to use time off for
the holiday. However, an employee may use available PHO to take another
day off within that pay period, provided they request the time off in
advance and receive approval.
When
an employee leaves the employment of Independent, they will not receive payout
for the remaining holidays for the years.
The
company paid holidays will be shared in Presslines and an
email blast each December for the upcoming year. Unused holiday cannot
roll over in the new year nor will it be considered a floating holiday.
PHO
- Effective January 1, 2024, the
annual PHO limit changes from 260 to 212 hours.
- The ‘use it or lose’ will be
added to the policy, meaning only 172 unused PHO hours can roll forward
into any new year.
However, for employees with a balance of 212 PHO
or more as of December 31, 2023, they will have a beginning balance of 212
hours Jan 1, 2024. Only 172 PHO at December 2024 end can be carried forward
into January 2025 and subsequent years.
- There is no change in the
accrual calculation, except PHO will not be accrued on holidays as
mentioned above.
Please
email questions and comments to incorporate@iniusa.org.
