Daniel Chammas: What You Need to Know About Unlimited Vacation Policy

​Daniel Chammas of Venable LLP’s Labor and Employment Practice Group of Los Angeles, California is a skilled litigator with experience in defending companies against wage and hour and consumer class action lawsuits. Recently he was interviewed by Bloomberg on Los Angeles Times’ unlimited vacation policy.
Several workplaces now offer flexible or unlimited vacation policy for their employees. The idea behind this policy is that employees are free to take as much time off from work as they choose, as long as they get their job done. The strategy behind this policy is that it focuses on producing excellent results, rather than just putting in the expected number of hours on the job. With the unlimited vacation policy, you might be allowed to take a day off whenever you want, or you might need to work around the schedule of your co-workers to get your day off approved by your HR department or your boss.
While your time off might be “unlimited”, your manager wouldn’t expect you to stay off work 75% of the time. In most cases, there might be a general range of days or weeks that are acceptable for employees to take off. Whatever the case, you will need to speak to your HR department or boss to check what is acceptable and what is not. Daniel Chammas was quoted in the Bloomberg article on the Los Angeles Times’ unlimited vacation policy. He said, "The primary justification is to get away from the obligation to pay out vacation upon termination. You could say that you’re doing it for administrative convenience because you don't track vacation and you're trying to be employee friendly and increase morale, but those are all pretty, I'd say, weak justifications."
Daniel Chammas also said that a California law that allows employees to bank vacation time is driving companies to the unlimited vacation policy.
Source: https://www.venable.com/bloomberg-interviews-dan-chammas-on-los-angeles-times-unlimited-vacation-policy-11-20-2014/
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