NH House Votes To Meddle Further in Employee Employer Relationships - Granite Grok

NH House Votes To Meddle Further in Employee Employer Relationships

regulationsThe New Hampshire House recently passed a bill that would prohibit employers from having use-it-or-lose-it vacation policies. Employers that provide vacation time can expect their employees to use it up within a certain time, after which they lose it. HB1201 would require employers to give employees more time to use the vacation after which they would be required to pay the employee for that time.

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The measure would require companies that offer vacation time to spell out the policies to their workers and provide an accounting of time used. If employees don’t use that vacation time in a year, they will have 90 days to schedule a vacation. If they can’t, “due to the needs of the business,” the company has to pay the workers for their time off.

Unions are excluded, of course, but that’s not the real issue.

Vacation time is a discretionary benefit so the immediate effect of this bill will be to force small business owners to reevaluate their vacation policies to avoid taking a payroll hit they may not be able to afford. Some may offer less vacation time. Some occupations might not offer any.

Contrast that to this update on HB 628 which claims a state medical leave insurance mandate forced on small business owners. That legislation creates a mandatory cost of doing business whether you can afford it or not, under the premise that it “will help New Hampshire attract and retain workers, including younger workers.”

It won’t. It will skew the marketplace at the expense of jobs, wages, and hours.

HB 1201, like HB628, is another example of the experts in Concord thinking they know better how to attract and retain employees than business owners who are betting their blood and treasure on an exercise meant to allow them to be their own boss.

Sorry, risk-taking entrepreneur, you still have a boss. It’s the Legislature in Concord, and if you have to give up something up to pay for another newly minted mandate, even if its staff, benefits, raises, or your own vacation, too bad.

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