G. PAID-TIME OFF POLICY
Pg. 44 of the Employee Handbook

Overview

• Paid-Time-Off (“PTO”) is a benefit for full-time employees that work a minimum of 37 hours per week. PTO is not available for part-time or contract employees. 

• PTO is not considered hours “worked” and does not contribute towards an employee accruing overtime pay.

• PTO is subject to income tax-withholding.

 

Hourly Non-Exempt Employees

Full-time hourly non-exempt employees earn one hour of PTO every 26 hours worked. Employees begin accruing PTO at the time of hire, however will not be eligible to use PTO until completing six months of continuous full-time employment. PTO is a single bank of time-off which can be thought of as combining vacation and sick time. Employees can use their bank of PTO time for illness, travel, personal projects, care for family members, and more. The max accrual employees can receive per year is 10 days (80 hours). Once 80 hours have been earned, accrual will stop.

 

Salary Exempt Employees

Full-time salary exempt employees are allocated 10 days of vacation time (80 hours) and eight days of sick time (64 hours) at the commencement of each year, or upon hire. Vacation time utilization is subject to a waiting period, and employees cannot begin using it until completing six months of continuous full-time employment. In contrast, sick time does not have a waiting period and may be used right away. 

 

Roll-Over Policy

For hourly non-exempt employees, PTO balances are reset each year on January 1st. Any PTO not used by December 31st will be cleared and set to zero. This accurately tracks Company costs, keeping BPI’s PTO budget consistent and predictable.

 

For salary exempt employees, their vacation balance will reset to 80, and their sick balance will reset to 64 each year on January 1st. It is important to note that these balances cannot exceed 80 or 64 hours.

 

Roll-overs can be considered for unique circumstances and must be addressed to Human Resources and approved by the President.

 

Cashing out PTO/Vacation
Employees who have been employed for at least one year may “cash-out” their unused PTO/vacation with President approval. A “PTO Cash-Out Request Form” must be submitted to Human Resources for processing. A maximum of 40 hours can be paid out at one time. Unlike vacation time, sick time cannot be “cashed-out.”

 

PTO during Termination

In the event of termination of employment, employees will be paid out for all accrued but unused vacation time for voluntary terminations only. PTO is not paid out for involuntary terminations. For more information about PTO during the time of termination, please refer to Section 12.

 

Time-off Requests

BPI values the well-being of its employees and recognizes the importance of allowing employees to take a break and recharge from the daily pressures of a dynamic work environment.

For vacation requests, employees are required to provide their manager and HR with a 2-week notice, using the designated channel determined by HR. Approval of requests will be contingent upon business needs and staffing requirements.

In the case of sick time, employees may need to take leave with short notice. If unable to report to work, employees must promptly inform their supervisor and adhere to HR's established call-out system. Should an employee miss work for three or more days, whether consecutive or not, HR may request a doctor's note releasing them to return to work, with or without restrictions.

 

Continuous Sick Leave

If a full-time or part-time employee is absent from work for a continuous 2-week period or more due to illness or injury, the employee will be subject to our Short-Term disability (“STD”) policy. At the end of 2-weeks, STD will begin, unpaid time. In order to return to work from a medical leave, the employee must present a doctor’s note releasing them to return to work with or without restrictions.