State's Highest Court Orders Employer to Pay Vacation, Costs and Attorneys Fees to Client of Attorney Alfred Gordon

The Massachusetts Wage Act, Chapter 149, Section 148, requires an employer to pay all outstanding wages, including vacation pay, on the same day it terminates an employee. In Dixon v. City of Malden, the City terminated an employee after nearly 25 years of service, but failed to pay him his accrued vacation leave on the date of termination. The City continued him on the payroll for three more months, but never claimed that the payments were in lieu of accrued 50 days of vacation.

The Supreme Judicial Court rejected the City's claim that the payment of an additional three months of pay mitigated the failure to pay 50 days of vacation. First, the continued pay was never characterized as a substitute for vacation pay. Second, the SJC affirmed that the statute requires the employer to pay accrued vacation on the date of discharge and not to apportion it for several weeks thereafter.

The Court ordered the City to pay withheld vacation days, costs and attorneys fees. Alfred Gordon, a partner of Pyle Rome Ehrenberg, PC, successfully represented the plaintiff in this case.