Common use of Preferential Choice Clause in Contracts

Preferential Choice. The concept of preferential choice is that each employee submits their first, second and third choices for an unbroken vacation period to the employee’s exempt supervisor. Once all of the vacation requests have been received, and subject to the operational needs of the department, vacation will be approved utilizing these preferences and an employee’s seniority. The following example shows how preferential choice works. Seniority/Choice First Choice Second Choice Third Choice Senior Employee July 1 - July 21 August 1 - August 21 Dec. 15 - January 7 Employee 2 July 1 - July 21 August 1 - August 21 Dec. 15 - January 7 Employee 3 July 1 - July 21 August 1 - August 21 Dec. 15 - January 7 Utilizing the above information and assuming Senior Employee is the most senior, Senior Employee will have vacation approved from July 1 - July 21, as that block of time was the employee’s first choice. The employee with the most seniority will always receive their first choice, subject to the principles stated earlier. Employee 2, being junior to Senior Employee would then receive their second choice being their August vacation choice. The employee having the least seniority, Employee 3, would then receive their third choice. Employees may still have additional vacation available. For instance, in the above scenario, senior employee only utilized three (3) weeks although they might be entitled to six (6). In such a case, the employee may request this additional vacation after the “first preference” vacation has been approved. Again, this would be on a seniority basis. This additional vacation may not, however, interfere with vacation blocks already approved.