An employee who doesn't get sick during the year can take an extra week of vacation. They're a way to repackage time off to make it part of compensation rather than just another employee benefit, said Rik Lindahl, who designs benefit packages for Watson Wyatt Worldwide in Houston.
Many employees view benefits like entitlements.
Consequently, the employee would get only 20 days of total time off. And at El Paso Energy, employees are no longer paid 100 percent of their salary when they go out on extended sick leave. While they generally receive more days of extended sick leave under the new plan, employees with less than five years of service receive only 80 percent of their pay, while employees with five to nine years receive 90 percent. Employees with 10 years or more receive full pay when they're seriously ill. When you give 150 percent by working weekends and evenings, it's not fair to only get 80 percent pay when you're recovering from surgery, said the El Paso employee, who asked not to be identified.