Employee Benefits and Services
Your employee benefits are designed to meet many of your personal needs and to provide for your well being. Together with your pay, your benefits form an important part of your total compensation. Some benefit programs have waiting periods and some require employee contributions: health, dental, retirement savings, dependent care, and, for eligible employees, disability programs as described in your employee benefits handbook.
 Holidays
All regular, full-time employees are eligible for paid holidays. You receive six paid holidays each year, including the following: New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.Part-time employees (those who work between 20-35 hours per week) will be paid for the above holidays if they fall on their regularly scheduled workday. Their holiday pay will be equal to their average weekly hours worked divided by 5. (ie. 32 average weekly hours divided 5 equals 6.4 hours holiday pay times their hourly wage). Employees who work less than 20 hours per week receive no holiday pay.

In addition, all regular, full-time employees will receive three (3) floating holidays, which will be assigned on those days when the office is open, but at the discretion of the supervisor, a reduced staff is sufficient (such as Columbus Day, Christmas Eve, etc.). To receive holiday pay, you must have been a regular full time employee (at least 35 hours/week) for at least 30 days. You are also required to work your scheduled day just before and just after the holiday, unless you have an approved or excused absence. When a Company-paid holiday falls within your vacation time, you will receive holiday pay and the holiday is not counted as vacation time. If you are on an unpaid leave of absence, you will not receive holiday pay.

  Vacation
All full time, regular employees begin to accrue vacation time from the first day of the month following their employment. If you start working on the first workday of the month, you begin accruing vacation credit from your hire date.While you accrue credit for vacation time each calendar year, you do not actually receive or become entitled to any of the vacation time until Dec. 31. If you do not remain employed by the Company on Dec. 31 of a given year, all of the vacation time accrued during that year is forfeited and you will receive no time off or compensation for it.

Below shows the number of vacation days you accrue each year:

Years of Service on Dec. 31

Vacation Hours Available Jan. 1
   Less than one year
   From one to five years
   Five to 15 years
   15 or more years
   5/6 day for each month
   Two Weeks
   Three weeks
   Four weeks

Example: If you complete five years of service on or before Dec. 31 of any year, three weeks of vacation entitlement is awarded to you on Jan. 1 of the next year.

If you are a full-time employee and normally work 40 hours per week, one week of vacation equals 40 hours. If you work more than 20 but less than 40 hours a week, you will accrue vacation time that is proportionate to the hours you actually work. The following example shows the amount of vacation you would accrue if you have employed two years and work 24 hours per week: 24 hours X 2 weeks/year = 48 hours of vacation per year

If you work less than a full year, you will accrue one-twelfth of your full year’s accrual for each full month worked. For example, if you worked nine months instead of 12, you would accrue 9/12 of your normal vacation for the year. If you normally would accrue 80 hours (two weeks) of vacation, you would accrue only 9/12 of 80 hours, or 60 hours of vacation.

You accrue vacation time only during months in which you are actively employed. No vacation is accrued for months in which you don’t work, such as time used when you are on leave of absence.

How Vacation Time is Vested: To receive vacation time, you need to be employed by the company on Dec. 31 of the year in which the vacation credit accrues. You may use earned vacation after it has been awarded on Jan. 1. However, due to the nature of our business, vacation time will generally not be granted during the period January 1st – March 31st.

Vacation time earned but not used during the calendar year cannot be carried forward to another year. Any vacation time not used is entirely forfeited and you receive no time off or compensation.

Using Your Vacation Time: The company wants you to use the full amount of your vacation time each year. Consult your supervisor when scheduling your use of vacation time. Vacation schedules need to be approved by your supervisor.

You may not choose to be paid for unused vacation time as long as you are an active employee. If you leave the company, you may be eligible to receive pay for vested vacation time that you have not used or forfeited. If you are terminated for gross misconduct, you will not be paid or given any time off for unused vacation.

Advance Vacation Pay: If you are going on a vacation and a payday falls during the time you will be gone, you may request your vacation pay in advance. Advance vacation pay is considered to be pay you have already earned.

Medical Visit Pay: Effective 2/18/15, all Donovan Travel employees will receive paid time off for cancer screenings. You will not be docked vacation, sick, or floating holiday time for such appointments. Documentation of your visit should be furnished upon your return.

 Leave of Absence
If you need to be away from work for a period of time, you should request a leave from your supervisor. There are two general types of leaves:Short-term Leaves: These leaves, which include sick, funeral, and jury or witness leave, are typically one week or less in duration, but may be longer in some situations.

Long Term Leaves: These leaves, which include medical leave, parental leave, personal leave, and military leave, are typically longer than one week in duration.

Unless otherwise indicated, you may request a leave if you are a full time, regular employee with at least 30 days of service. Your Supervisor and the Executive Vice President must approve the leave. The following provides an overview of short-term and long-term leaves of absence and the effect they have on your employee benefits:

Sick Leave

Paid sick leave is available for short periods of illness if you notify your supervisor within one hour of the time you would have started work. In addition, you may use up to four hours of sick leave per appointment for medical or dental appointments with your supervisor’s approval.

Full time employees (more than 35 hours per week) accrue sick leave at the rate of ½ day per month (4 hours), to a maximum of six days per year (48 hours). Part-time employees (20-35 hours per week) accrue sick leave at the rate of ¼ day per month (2 hours), to a maximum of 3 days per year (24 hours). You may exchange any unused sick time as of December 1st in one of two ways:

  • Exchange on a one-to-one basis unused sick time for FAM days for the following year (see Familiarization (FAM) Trips

  • Receive 1/2 days pay for each unused sick day. This is calculated by dividing your base weekly wage by 10.

Effect on your benefits: Your regular benefits continue in effect. There is no interruption of holiday pay, vacation pay or sick leave accrue.

Funeral Leave

A maximum of three days of paid leave will be granted when an employee’s family member passes away. Family members include your spouse, child, mother, mother-in-law, father, father-in-law, grandparents, legal guardian, brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, or grandchild. If needed, more time off without pay will be available with supervisor approval.

Effect on your benefits: All of your regular benefits continue in effect. There is no interruption of holiday pay, vacation or sick leave accruals.

Jury or Witness Leave

If you need to serve as a juror or witness (unless testifying on your own behalf), you may take time off work to do so. The Company will pay you the difference between your base pay and the amount you are paid by the court up to a maximum of 40 hours during a calendar year.Effect on your benefits: All of your regular benefits continue in effect. There is no interruption of holiday pay, vacation or sick leave accruals.

Medical Leave 

If your doctor instructs you to temporarily stop working for medical reasons, you may request a medical leave.

Effect on your benefits: During your medical leave, your regular benefits continue in effect, except for health, dental and life insurance. However, you may continue health and dental benefits by reimbursing your employer. You are not eligible for holiday pay and do not accrue vacation time or sick leave while you are on medical leave.

Parental Leave

If you have been employed for at least one year, you may request an unpaid leave for up to 12 weeks following the birth or adoption of a child.Effect on your benefits: During your parental leave, your regular benefits continue in effect, except for health, dental and life insurance. However, you may continue health and dental benefits by reimbursing your employer. You are not eligible for holiday pay, and do not accrue vacation time or sick leave while you are on parental leave.

Personal Leave  

After the Company has employed you at least one year, you may request a leave of absence of up to six months for personal reasons.

Effect on your benefits: During your personal leave, your regular benefits continue in effect, except for health, dental, or life insurance. However, you may continue health and dental benefits by reimbursing your employer. You are not eligible for holiday pay and do not accrue vacation time or sick leave while you are on personal leave.

Military Leave   

If you are member of the National Guard, Air National Guard, or active reserves of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force or Coast Guard, you will granted two weeks annual training leave. The company will pay you the difference between your base pay and your military service pay during your annual two weeks of training.Effect on your benefits: Your regular benefits continue in effect while you are on leave for two-week annual training. However, for leaves during your regular military service, you may only continue health and dental benefits by reimbursing your employer. Coverage exclusions may apply to illness or injuries that are caused by your military service or training. There will be no break in service while you are on leave. The length of you leave of absence and active military status may affect your holiday pay and vacation and sick leave accrual.
When you return from your leave: When you return from your leave of absence, the Company will attempt to place you in the position you left. If the position has been filled, you may be placed in a similar position. If you have been on medical leave, you must have approval from your doctor that you can return to work.A leave of absence is not considered to be a break in service. This means that when you return, you are immediately eligible to resume participation in all of the employee benefits you were eligible for before you went on leave status. You would resume accruing vacation time at the rate that was in effect for you when your leave began.

 Familiarization Trips
In order for you to gain first hand knowledge of and experience with the products and destinations we sell, eligible employees may be granted paid FAM time and reimbursement for trip related expenses.Regular employees working at least 20 hours per week, with six months of continuous service and occupying the of position of Manager, Supervisor, Travel Counselor, or Trainee are eligible for FAM trips. You are eligible for up to 3 paid FAM days per calendar year. In addition you may accrue up to 6 additional FAM days for unused sick time from the previous year. The maximum number of FAM days available in any one year would be 9. The number of FAM days for which you are eligible is pro-rated according to the number of hours you normally work. Similarly, the maximum reimbursement of FAM trip related expenses of $300 for full time employees is pro-rated for employees working between 20 and 40 hours per week. Unused FAM days may not be accumulated from year to year.

A request for a FAM Trip and FAM Time may be obtained from your supervisor at least 2 weeks prior to departure. In order to be credited for reimbursement and time off credited to FAM time, every trip must have a complete write up on each location with special comments on the highlights, and the negative experienced during the trip. The report is due no later then 30 days from returning from the trip. If the report is not completed and handed in within those 30 days, FAM time will be forfeited and will be turned into vacation time. No reimbursement will be credited.

Employees traveling on FAM Trips are representing Donovan Travel and as such are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and to dress appropriately.

FAM Trips are to be used as an educational experience and not a vacation. FAM trips should be organized supplier related trips. You may organize your own FAM trip by supplying an agenda to your supervisor which must meet FAM trip criteria. Daily ship inspections may be used as FAM time.

 Complimentary Airline Tickets
On occasion, we as a company have an opportunity to earn free airlines tickets. These airlines tickets, if available will be used first for meetings, seminars and training and secondly for FAMS and educational experiences. Full time employees may request tickets from their supervisor for personal use. Because tickets are limited, this will be based on availability at the time of request.

 401K Plan
We are pleased to provide this profit-sharing Plan to enable you to accumulate long-term savings for your retirement while benefiting from favorable tax treatment on your current salary.This voluntary retirement savings program offers you the advantage of making contributions from your pre-tax salary. You defer payment of federal income taxes on amounts you contribute until they are withdrawn or paid as benefits. Moreover, any interest and investment earnings accumulate on a tax-deferred basis until withdrawn or paid as benefits. Your contributions are made each payroll period by salary reduction.

We also make contributions on your behalf. For the calendar year, we will contribute 50% of every dollar you contribute up to 6% of your payroll.

Under a contract with Donovan Travel, American Life receives the plan contributions, maintains participants’ individual accounts, offers the investment options and pays benefits to participants and their beneficiaries. Benefits are based on a stated contribution formula and are fully funded at all times. Therefore, the plan is classified as a defined contribution plan and is not covered for plan termination insurance provided by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Although we intend to continue the plan indefinitely, we reserve the right to amend, modify, discontinue or terminate the plan at such time as in our discretion may be deemed appropriate, without the consent of or prior notice to any employee, subject to the provisions of applicable laws. No amendment to the plan can retroactively reduce benefits, except as required or permitted by applicable law.

Please refer to your Summary Plan Description handbook for further details on our 401(k) Plan.