State adjusts workers' vacation day policy because of pandemic travel restrictions

Many state employees will be allowed to carry vacation days that otherwise would have been lost into 2022 under a policy change the Human Resources Division made because of earlier pandemic travel restrictions.

Instead of allowing employees to carry vacation time accrued in the last two years (2020 and 2021) into 2022, the new HRD policy allows vacation time accrued in 2019 to also be retained into 2022, the administrative head of the Gaming Commission said Thursday. The agency adopted the same policy for itself.

"So if you had an employee that had for the last several years got two weeks of vacation time, normally they'd be able to carry over four weeks. But in this event, they'd be able to carry over six weeks," Karen Wells said, adding that it has been hard for the commission's gaming agents to take time off in the pandemic.

In a memo outlining the policy and recommendation that the Gaming Commission adopt it, Wells and Human Resources Manager Trupti Banda said that "HRD has created a schedule of new deadlines for use of this accrued time off, which will allow the carryover policy to return to normal in Calendar Year 2024."