In case you missed the Channel 13 news at 10pm, here is an excellent story for which I was interviewed. The story details the very generous government perk received by City employees who leave the bureaucracy for whatever reason and have built up a great deal of sick and vacation time.
A few important aspects of the story include:
1) According to Christine Trujillo the AFL-CIO, City employees “donate a lot of time and energy to their jobs;”
2) No one in the private sector receives such a generous payout (if they receive anything) for their unused sick or vacation time;
3) Government workers in New Mexico, including City workers, are paid as well or better than their peers in the private sector. Check out our study here. According to our data which is taken from federal numbers, state and local government workers in New Mexico earn 11.5 percent more than those in the private sector in terms of total compensation for their work.
Intel non exempt employees get to cash out accrued vacation and sick time upon termination. I think it’s common in the private sector depending on job position.
You are correct Greg about vacation time. Getting paid those hours apon leaving is pretty stanard practice.
I have never heard of this policy regarding sick time and it would be bad policy to practice. Sick time is meant to be used when sick so as not to spread viruses around the workplace. To encourage people to not use sick time is ludicrous. This part of the contracts I have a problem with.
In regards to Intel, reading a blog from employees called faceintel.com, they do not receive sick pay upon termination. That could have changed since those entries I read.
Federal government employees can only carry over 30 days of annual leave thus they are forced to use it or lose it. As for sick leave, its worth nothing beyond its intended purpose. Now for federal employees under the old CSRS system, sick leave is usable for retirement time but has no cash value.
As for Intel, its a private company, if they want to pay their employees a million a day, that’s up to them.