Seasonal Employees

Since we began the new Co-op Retirement Plan website in April 2009, there have been some differences with the way employers have been handling the way they report seasonal employees that leave their employment. The purpose of this notice is to recommend some general guidelines on how to handle this in the website so that there is consistency among employers. However, please keep in mind that these are only recommended guidelines. If you have business reasons that are beneficial to you as an employer to officially terminate these seasonal employees each time they leave, then by all means, handle them in the fashion that is in the best interest of your company.      

Definition:

Seasonal Employee – An employee that works only during peak periods during the year when business demand warrants (i.e., spring and fall seasons). Typically only works a few months in a year and may or may not be utilized again. This is different from a “part-time” employee who works on a regular basis throughout the year but less than 40 hours per week.

Recommended General Guidelines For Reporting Terminations of Seasonal Employees in the Co-op Retirement Plan Website: Generally, if a “Seasonal” employee leaves your employment and you know or expect that they will return to work for you during the next peak period or in the near future, we recommend that you do not terminate them on the website but rather leave them as “Active”. The system allows “Seasonal” employees to remain in an active status even if they will not be on upcoming payrolls. If you find out later that they will not be coming back to work, you should terminate them at that time.

If a “Seasonal” employee leaves your employment and you know or expect that they will not return to work for you, go ahead and report them as “Terminated” on the website as soon as they leave. If you were to find out later that they are coming back to work for you, then change them back to “Active” on the website when they return with the rehire date in the “Latest Hire Date” field.

By following these general guidelines for “Seasonal” employees, it should eliminate the “terminate, rehire, terminate, rehire, terminate” cycle that many of you are going through on the website for these employees.

Your payroll system may not use the “seasonal” designation for these employees but rather “part-time”. If so, you can still follow these same guidelines for them even if their pay type is “part-time”.