Opinion ID: 2345415
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Entitlement to Unpaid Wages and Vacation Time

Text: [¶ 6] The purpose of Maine's wage payment statute, 26 M.R.S. § 626, is to provide former employees with a cause of action to seek payment of unpaid wages and vacation time. Madore v. Kennebec Heights Country Club, 2007 ME 92, ¶ 11, 926 A.2d 1180, 1184. The relevant portion of the statute provides that: An employee leaving employment must be paid in full within a reasonable time after demand at the office of the employer where payrolls are kept and wages are paid.... Whenever the terms of employment include provisions for paid vacations, vacation pay on cessation of employment has the same status as wages earned. 26 M.R.S. § 626. Interpretation of section 626 is governed by its plain language, which is unambiguous. Bisbing v. Me. Med. Ctr., 2003 ME 49, ¶ 5, 820 A.2d 582, 584. [¶ 7] Although section 626 creates a statutory right for former employees to seek payment, entitlement to payment is governed solely by the terms of the employment agreement. Rowell v. Jones & Vining, Inc., 524 A.2d 1208, 1210-11 (Me. 1987). Therefore, pursuant to section 626, a former employee may only claim what is owed according to the terms of the employment agreement; section 626 does not modify or supercede its terms. [¶ 8] We first reached this result in Rowell, when we found that former employees were not owed vacation time pursuant to section 626, because they had not satisfied their employment agreement's conditions for earning it. Id. We have subsequently reaffirmed that the employment agreement determines the wages or vacation time a former employee is owed. Burke v. Port Resort Realty Corp., 1998 ME 193, ¶ 5, 714 A.2d 837, 839 (entitlement to commissions upon severance of employment relationship pursuant to section 626 determined according to employment agreement); Purdy v. Cmty. Telecomm. Corp., 663 A.2d 25, 28-29 (Me.1995) (under terms of employment agreement, former employee had taken unpaid leave, not vacation, and was therefore not entitled to commissions accrued during that time pursuant to section 626).