Congressman proposes Paid Vacation Act
Updated: Thursday, 21 May 2009, 12:36 PM EDT
Published : Thursday, 21 May 2009, 12:35 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (WOFL FOX 35) - Florida Congressman Alan Grayson introduced the Paid Vacation Act of 2009 on Thursday in hopes of improving productivity at American companies and providing a spark for travel and tourism industries, Grayson officials announced.

“Why are paid vacations good enough for the Chinese, French, Japanese, and German employees, but not good enough for us? In other countries, its a matter of right. Everyone is entitled to it. In our country, it is a matter of class,” Grayson wrote in a release.

“Over time we are coming to realize that whatever your background, wherever you grew up, wherever you live, there are certain basic elements that people need to have enjoyable lives. They need health care. They need a decent paying job. And for a good life, they need time off,” he added.

The Act would require at least one week of paid vacation for employees at companies with at least 100 employees. Full-and-part workers would be eligible for the vacation after one year of service.

FoxNEws

Personnel Record Keeping

• In general, employers must keep all personnel or employment records for one year.


• If an employee is involuntarily terminated, his/her personnel records must be retained for one year from the date of termination.


• If a claim of discrimination is filed, all relevant personnel records must be retained until final disposition of the matter.


• Under the ADEA, employers must also keep all payroll records for three years.


• Employers must also keep on file any employee benefit plan and any written seniority or merit system for the full period the plan or system is in effect and for at least one year after its termination.


• Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must keep payroll records for at least three years.


• Employers must also keep for at least two years all records (including wage rates, job evaluations, seniority and merit systems, and collective bargaining agreements) that explain the basis for paying different wages to employees of opposite sexes in the same establishment.

HR Village

What Records Should I Keep?

Private Demogrphic Records

• Emergency Contact information


• Home address


• Home Contact Information

Employee Registration and Personnel Actions

• Offer Letter


• Job descriptions


• Employment application and resume


• Test documents used by an employer to make employment decisions . College transcripts


• Signed acknowledgements


• Promotion or demotion


• Performance evaluations


• Disciplinary notices or documents


• Transfer or layoff


• Rates of pay and other forms of compensation


• General training records


• Letters of recognition


• Termination/resignation letter or form


• Release to provide reference information

Pay and Attendance Records

• Pay Records


• Deductions


• Paid Time off


• Garnishments


• W-4 Tax deduction authorization

Benefit Records

• Enrollment Documents


• Plan Change Notifications


• 401k Loan documents

Work Authorization Records

• I-9

Release to provide reference information

How Long Should I Keep Payroll Records?

In general, a good rule of thumb is to keep files for the longest amount of time required

• California requires employers to keep payroll records two years under the state's Labor Code


• Four years under the state's Unemployment Insurance Code,


• Federal government requires three years from date of last entry under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Source HR Resource

What Should I Keep?

How Secure do I Keep Records?

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you also have important legal duties relating to how you keep staff records and what you do with them.

• In addition, employees are entitled to access certain records and can seek compensation for damage or distress suffered as a result of a breach of the Act.


• This means that you should take care when recording information about your staff.

What do Keep Records On?

More generally, you should keep records - eg minutes - of:

• meetings with workplace representatives


• any disciplinary action you have ever taken, in particular disciplinary hearings


• individual and collective redundancy consultation meetings and agreements


• negotiations relating to information and consultation agreements

Keeping staff records: the business benefits. Keeping staff records beyond those required by law may help you:

• match staff resources with production or service requirements
  avoid or defend tribunal claims when a dispute with an employee arises
  assess the performance and productivity of individual employees or teams
  ensure that you are treating job applicants and workers consistently and fairly


• make decisions in relation to staffing levels, eon recruitment and redundancy

The level of detail in staff records