Illinois Employee Vacation Benefits

Have your vacation benefits been unfairly terminated, discriminately distributed, or withheld from you at the time of termination? If so, your employer may have violated your employee benefits privileges, as well as state and federal labor laws.

With years of experience defending workers’ rights, our employee vacation benefits lawyers can help you determine if you have a claim for unpaid vacation benefits. We hold employers accountable for their labor law violations and help you get the benefits you deserve.

Employee Vacations: Benefits Not Rights

If you believe that your employee vacation privileges have been violated by your employer, contact the offices of GWC Injury Lawyers. Our Illinois vacation benefits lawyers will work with you to understand your employer’s vacation benefits policies and determine if legal action is right for you.

You deserve the vacation benefits that you worked hard for and that were promised to you. Our employment law attorneys will provide personalized attention to your case to get you the justice you deserve.

Despite common thought, there is no federal or Illinois law that requires employers to provide employees with paid vacation. Employee vacations are benefits, not rights, and it is up to the employer to decide whether or not to provide vacation benefits.

However, even though the United States government cannot require employers to give you time off, competition can. Paid vacation, in one form or another, has become the standard in many industries, and companies who want to aggressively recruit will often use employee vacations as a means to secure the best of the best.

If you are wondering what employee vacation benefits you have, check your employee handbook. Most companies include their vacation policy in the handbook given to employees when they are first hired. This provides a guide that the company must follow and manage in a fair way.

Unused Employee Vacations

In the state of Illinois, labor laws require an employer to pay all accrued and earned vacation benefits at the point of separation with an employee, regardless of if they are fired or quit. This is because paid vacation time is considered a part of an employee’s compensation, and an employer cannot require you to give up any form of compensation that is owed to you.

If your employer refused to pay your accrued vacation benefits at the time of separation or tries to hold your benefits as a bargaining chip, there may be grounds for an employee vacation benefits lawsuit. Our wage violation lawyers will investigate your case and determine if legal action is right for you.

Permissible Employee Vacation Time Restrictions

If an employer has promised vacation benefits to an employee, they are obligated to keep that promise and to provide the benefits. Although they have leeway in the way they choose to distribute employee vacation benefits, they are required to stick with their chosen set of rules.

There are permissible restrictions that your employer is allowed to implement regarding vacation time. Here are a few allowable restrictions:

• How much vacation time you can save up without losing it
• Specific times when vacation may be taken
• Amount of notice that must be given prior to taking vacation time
• If the benefits will be administered in a “use it or lose it” manner

For example, employers may restrict employee vacations so that only full-time employees can receive them. Your employer is allowed to make these restrictions as long as treatment of employees within a certain classification, such as temps or full-time, is consistent.

Employee Vacation Time Discrimination

Your employer should not violate their employee vacation policy by refusing vacation wages at termination or withholding vacation time to get back at an employee. Furthermore, employee vacations cannot be administered in discriminatory, arbitrary, or inconsistent ways.

If your employer utilizes vacation time in a manner that you feel is unfair, speak to an employee vacation benefits lawyer at GWC Injury Lawyers to find out how to get the benefits you deserve.