Ronrrable Bob Armstrong 

Commissioner 

General Land Office 

Austin, Texas 78701 

Opinion No. M-984 

Re: Related questions concerning compensation and 

accumulation of annual 

Dear Mr. Armstrong: leave for State employees. 

You request our opinion on the proper amount of annual 

leave for State employees employed on an annual basis with 

fifteen years or more of service, and a determination of how 

many days of annual leave an employee may carry forward. 

You specifically ask if an employee, upon completion 

of fifteen years of service, has at that time earned fifteen 

days of annual leave, or if at that time he only begins to 

accumulate fifteen days, prorated throughout the following 

year so that the fifteen days of annual leave are not actually 

earned until the completion of his sixteenth year of employment. 

The language contained in the General Appropriation Bill 

of the Sixty-first Legislature and the Sixty-second Legislature 

is identical and this opinion will only refer to the present 

appropriation bill. 

The current General Appropriation Bill, ' in its Article 

V, Sec. 7(a), page V-35, reads, in part) 

"EMPLOYEES VACATION AND LEAVES. a. Annual 

emolovees of the State shall, without deduction 

in-salary, be entitled to a vacation of two 

normal work weeks in any one fiscal year, such 

entitlement to be accrued proportionately for 

each month of service during the year. 

'S-B. 11, Acts 62nd Leg., R-S., 1971, as amended by S.B. 7, 

1st C.S., 62nd Leg., 1971. 

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Honorable Bob Armstrong, page 2 (M-9641 

"Annual employees with fifteen (15) or 

more years of employment with the State shall 

be entitled to two normal work weeks plus 

five (5) additional normal working days of 

vacation in any one fiscal year. 

"Annual employees with twenty (20) or 

more years of employment with the State shall 

be entitled to two normal work weeks plus ten 

(10) additional working days of vacation in 

any one fiscal year." 

Our interpretation of this provision is that State 

employees accrue vacation entitlement monthly according to 

length of service as follows: 

LENGTH OF STATE SERVICE MONTHLY VACATION ACCRUED 

Less than 15 years 

From 15 through 19 

20 years and over 

years 

6-2/3 hours 

10 hours 

13-l/3 hours 

The language is definite that an annual employee who 

completes fifteen years or more of employment shall be entitled 

to two normal weeks plus five additional normal working days 

of vacation in any one fiscal year. If there be any doubt or 

ambiguity in the statute calling for construction, it should 

be resolved in favor of the beneficiary under the well settled 

canon which demands a liberal construction in favor of encouraging State service by State employees. Attorney General Opinion 

No. C-679 (1966); 50 Am.Jur. 420, Statutes, Sec. 396. Our 

opinion is that an annual employee who has completed fifteen 

years of service is entitled to fifteen normal working days of 

vacation. 

Thus, the employee who is beginning his fifteenth year 

of employment with the State must complete his fifteenth year 

in order to become entitled to fifteen days of vacation. 

An analogous situation is the provision in the Appropriation Bill that provides that no beginning employee shall be 

allowed any paid vacation entitlement until he has had continuous employment with the State for six months. Under the terms 
. . ‘1 

Honorable Bob Armstrong, page 3 (M-984) 

of this provision, the beginning employee who has worked only 

four months has not earned any vacation entitlement. However, 

if the employee completes six months of employment, then he 

becomes entitled to five days of vacation. 

However, in the event an employee dies or terminates 

his employment during his fifteenth year, then for the purpose 

of computing his accrued vacation, the vacation entitlement 

would be based on vacation accrued at the rate of 6-2/3 hours 

for each month of employment and not 10 hours, since the prerequisite of working the full fifteen years has not been met. 

We followed this reasoning in our Opinion No. M-731 (1970). 

Our holdings relative to an employee during his fifteenth 

year of service and at completion of fifteen years of service 

are likewise applicable to an employee during his twentieth 

year of service and at the completion of twenty years. 

You further ask how many total days of annual leave 

an employee may carry forward without taking the vacation or 

losing the time. The applicable portion of the current General 

Appropriation Bill pertinent to this question is that portion 

of Sec. 7(a) which reads as follows: 

,I . . . 

"Total accumulated leave to any employee 

may never exceed the equivalent of his earned 

vacation entitlement for the preceding twoyear period. No employee shall be allowed any 

paid vacation entitlement until he has had 

continuous employment with the State for six 

(6) months. 

0 II 

. . . 

The act is quite clear that an employee may not accumulate 

vacation entitlement exceeding the preceding two years. Our 

opinion is that an employee may carry forward from one fiscal 

year to the next no more than an accumulation of two years 

vacation, and that at the conclusion of the third fiscal year 

he must have used at least one year or lose that portion of 

total accumulated vacation that exceeds the accumulated vacation for the preceding two-year period. 

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Honorable Bob Armstrong, page 4 (M-984) 

Stated another way, an employee during any one fiscal 

year may use vacation entitlement accumulated during the 

preceding two-year period, plus the accrued vacation for the 

current year. 

This Office is mindful of Subdivision g of Section 7 

of the current General Appropriation Bill, which provides as 

follows: 

'lg. The State Auditor shall provide a 

uniform interpretation of the provisions herein 

contained on employee vacations and leaves, and 

shall report to the Governor and the Legislature any exceptions practiced by the various 

entities of the State Government." 

This Office has construed this provision to mean that 

the State Auditor may provide a uniform interpretation of the 

provisions on employee vacations and leaves, but such interpretation would be advisory in nature only and not a final determination because the Legislature has specifically delegated to 

the Attorney General the responsibility of interperting legislative intent as it relates to the General Appropriation Bill. 

SUMMARY 

An annual employee upon completion of his 

fifteenth year of service is entitled to fifteen 

normal working days of vacation. 

An employee during any one, fiscal year may 

use vacation entitlement accumulated during 

the preceding two-year period, plus the accrued 

vacation for the current year. 

7 

Very truly ygurs, 

Prepared by Linward Shivers 

Assistant Attorney General 

(&L$&h& 

Att ney General of Texas 

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Honorable Bob Armstrong, page 5 (M-984) 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

Kerns Taylor, Chairman 

W. E. Allen, Co-Chairman 

J. C. Davis 

W. Dyer Moore 

Roger Tyler 

Bob Flowers 

SAM MCDANIEL 

Staff Legal Assistant 

ALFRED WALKER 

Executive Assistant 

NOLA WHITE 

First Assistant 

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