A judge has ordered Lexmark International to pay some $8.3 million to compensate its California employees for a flawed "use it or lose it" vacation pay policy.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gregory Alarcon ruled this week that the 178 employees identified in the class-action suit should be compensated for the vacation time and personal time they did not use before they were terminated.

The employees originally challenged the company saying they should not lose compensation for the time that they did not use.

The judge ruled in May 2009 that the Lexington-based printer maker's policy violates California labor law but it took until June to work out the numbers.

The employees were originally asking for $16 million in damages, said Sheila Thomas, a plaintiffs attorney.

The final judgment set out in an order is $8,299,242.

She said the ruling applies to anyone who worked for Lexmark in California from 1991 to the present. Most of the plaintiffs were involved in sales or marketing, she said.

Lexmark declined to comment on the case because of pending litigation, said the company's Lexington-based spokesman Jerry Grasso.