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 theproper amount of annual leave for State employees employed on an annualbasis with fifteen years ormore of service, and adetermination ofhow 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 timehe onlybegins to accumulate fifteen days, prorated throughout the following year so that the fifteen days of annual leave arenot 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 thepresent appropriation bill.

The current General Appropriation Bill,' in itsArticle V, Sec. 7(a), page V-35, reads, inpart)

"EMPLOYEES VACATION AND LEAVES. a. Annual emolovees of the State shall, without deduction in-salary, be entitled to avacation of two normal work weeks in any one fiscalyear, such entitlement tobe accrued proportionately for eachmonth of service during the year.

'S-B. 11,Acts 62nd Leg., R-S., 1971, as amendedby S.B. 7, 1st C.S., 62nd Leg., 1971.

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"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 fiscalyear. "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 fiscalyear." Our interpretation of thisprovision is that State employees accrue vacation entitlement monthly according to length of service as follows:

LENGTH OF STATE SERVICE MONTHLY VACATION ACCRUED Less than 15years From 15 through 19 20years and over years 6-2/3hours 10 hours 13-l/3hours
The language isdefinite that an annual employee who completes fifteenyears ormore of employment shallbe entitled to two normal weeks plus five additional normalworking days of vacation in any one fiscalyear. If therebe anydoubt or ambiguity in the statute calling for construction, it should be resolved in favorof thebeneficiary under thewell settled canon which demands a liberal construction in favorof encouraging State service by State employees. Attorney General Opinion No. C-679 (1966); 50Am.Jur. 420, Statutes, Sec. 396. Our opinion is that an annual employee who has completed fifteen years of service is entitled to fifteen normalworking days of vacation.

Thus, the employee who isbeginning his fifteenth year of employment with the Statemust complete his fifteenth year in order tobecome entitled to fifteen days ofvacation.

An analogous situation is theprovision in theAppropriation Bill that provides that nobeginning employee shallbe allowed any paid vacation entitlement until hehas had continuous employment with the State for sixmonths. Under the terms.. ‘1

Honorable Bob Armstrong, page 3 (M-984)

of this provision, thebeginning employee who hasworked only fourmonths has not earned any vacation entitlement. However, if the employee completes sixmonths of employment, thenhe becomes entitled to five days of vacation.

However, in the event an employee dies or terminates his employment during his fifteenth year, then for thepurpose of computing his accrued vacation, thevacation entitlement would be based onvacation accrued at the rate of 6-2/3 hours for each month of employment and not 10hours, since the prerequisite ofworking the full fifteen years has not been met. We followed this reasoning in our Opinion No. M-731 (1970).

Ourholdings relative to an employee during his fifteenth year of service and at completion of fifteenyears 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 ofhis earned vacation entitlement for the preceding twoyear period. No employee shallbe allowed any paid vacation entitlement until hehashad continuous employment with the State for six (6)months.

0 II

. . . The act isquite clear that an employee may not accumulate vacation entitlement exceeding the preceding twoyears. Our opinion is that an employee may carry forward from one fiscal year to thenext nomore than an accumulation of twoyears vacation, and that at the conclusion of the third fiscal year hemust have used at least one year or lose that portion of total accumulated vacation that exceeds the accumulated vacation for thepreceding two-year period.

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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 ismindful 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 theLegislature any exceptions practiced by thevarious entities of the State Government." This Office has construed this provision tomean that the State Auditor may provide auniform interpretation of the provisions on employee vacations and leaves,but such interpretation would be advisory innature only andnot 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 ofhis fifteenthyear of service is entitled to fifteen normal working days of vacation. An employee during any one,fiscalyearmay use vacation entitlement accumulated during thepreceding two-year period, plus the accrued vacation for the current year. 7 Very trulyygurs,

Prepared by Linward Shivers Assistant Attorney General 

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Att neyGeneral of Texas

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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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