contractor works at company for 2 years
becomes full time employee with company x
can they start with 2 years of service instead of 0?

i know we do that with union electricians that come to the office, but never heard of that for most businesses.

i got service time when i joined a major O&G, after having worked with them as a contractor for a couple years

thanks

hoosier-daddy said:

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contractor works at company for 2 years
becomes full time employee with company x
can they start with 2 years of service instead of 0?

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I would assume its up to the company.

My wife worked as on site staff augment through a temp agency for a big company for about 18 months before the big company hired her full time. They counted the 18 months with the temp agency as part of her years of service and then she worked for about 5 years before getting laid off during a RIF.

She rejoined the same big company after a 5 year absence raising our kids and they did not bridge her service time so she started over from zero the second time around.

I'd run it through an employment attorney first...sounds like a potential co-employment claim to me.

nm

Ezra Brooks said:

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It's a risk.

Vacation is simple - they've credited you for experience, not service.

But if you are going to grant a contractor actual service credit, be prepared that you've opened yourself up to a claim for anything that you've provided your "real" employees and not the contractor --> pension, 401K vesting, etc. can all be things that they might have the ability to claim that they are owed.

Further - if there are any issues with their taxes, etc.(not properly paying payroll taxes) you may open yourself up to be on the hook for that.

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and herein lies a great example of what business folks think vs what legal thinks. Legal has to deal with the bs created by the biz folks who never think what legal tells them can happen will actually happen, until it does then the biz complains that legal didn't properly inform them of the risks and asks why they were allowed to do what they did in spite of being told by legal that isn't not a great idea and causes unnecessary risk exposure, which the biz folks brush off as "lawyers being lawyers" and overrule them because biz side almost always wins when pitted against legal.

No offense to anyone, its just funny how different versions of this exact scenario play out over and over and over in corporate america.


edit: no need to descend into the rabbit hole of over-paranoid lawyers often getting in the way of perfectly acceptable biz deals and all the bs the biz side has to deal with from legal. I get all of it. Its just funny how neither side really wants to hear what the other has to say, but when the SHTF its always legal's fault for "allowing" the biz to do whatever it is they ultimately did. At the end of the day the biz has to make a call on if its acceptable risk for what they want to accomplish and all legal can do is advise (unless that particular legal dept has real teeth and can put the kibosh on stuff they really disagree with. Carry on, none of this really has anything to do with OP, I just felt the need to ramble out some musings....

Worst case scenario it triggers some sort of audit and it turns out all contractors were actually legally employees of the organization and then they are on the hook for the repercussions of that.

This thread tells me I made the right decision. I sent the exec asking me the question on to Legal. They were definitely looking for a quick yes from me.

When I worked for Chevron they counted your time as a contractor towards your pension vesting once you became an employee. However, in my experience most companies don't do this.

Very common. Some companies may not do it often, but most company plans allow it. May have to be approved by the CEO, but the plan allows it. Common for salaried positions, especially related to minor benefits (vacation days, etc.)

Remember, most plans have flexibility due to executive needs or potential issues. So the plans include options, but they may not use them for lower employees. If you are at a public company, you can probably read the plans filed with the SEC.

Hanrahan said:

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Ezra Brooks said:

---

It's a risk.

Vacation is simple - they've credited you for experience, not service.

But if you are going to grant a contractor actual service credit, be prepared that you've opened yourself up to a claim for anything that you've provided your "real" employees and not the contractor --> pension, 401K vesting, etc. can all be things that they might have the ability to claim that they are owed.

Further - if there are any issues with their taxes, etc.(not properly paying payroll taxes) you may open yourself up to be on the hook for that.

---

and herein lies a great example of what business folks think vs what legal thinks. Legal has to deal with the bs created by the biz folks who never think what legal tells them can happen will actually happen, until it does then the biz complains that legal didn't properly inform them of the risks and asks why they were allowed to do what they did in spite of being told by legal that isn't not a great idea and causes unnecessary risk exposure, which the biz folks brush off as "lawyers being lawyers" and overrule them because biz side almost always wins when pitted against legal.

No offense to anyone, its just funny how different versions of this exact scenario play out over and over and over in corporate america.


edit: no need to descend into the rabbit hole of over-paranoid lawyers often getting in the way of perfectly acceptable biz deals and all the bs the biz side has to deal with from legal. I get all of it. Its just funny how neither side really wants to hear what the other has to say, but when the SHTF its always legal's fault for "allowing" the biz to do whatever it is they ultimately did. At the end of the day the biz has to make a call on if its acceptable risk for what they want to accomplish and all legal can do is advise (unless that particular legal dept has real teeth and can put the kibosh on stuff they really disagree with. Carry on, none of this really has anything to do with OP, I just felt the need to ramble out some musings....

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finally it's not always HR's fault!!

- HR

hoosier-daddy said:

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contractor works at company for 2 years
becomes full time employee with company x
can they start with 2 years of service instead of 0?

---

yes, a friend and work associate that worked for me as a contractor doing work for ExxonMobil, took a full time job with ExxonMobil and they credited that time toward service.