Legal Question in Business Law in California

My fiance has been at his job, it will be 10 years in August. He works 6 days a week, one day off only. He is a salaried employee, and is 1 of 2 managers for the store. He has been paid vacation time from the time he started working there. Today the Owner had him come in early, and told both managers and the Check out supervisor he is NOT going to pay for vacations any longer and I believe sick time also. They were paid vacation pay at the end of the year. Is this allowed? Can they just take it away like that when they have ALWAYS given vacation pay. Besides that my fiance never and I mean NEVER misses work, even when sick, he works 6 days a week, faithfully, never late, dosen't take time off for anything, except 1 time when he took off 4 days to go see his new grandchild, and that is it. One day of the week, every Sunday he works from 7:00am to 8:00pm, opens and closes the store and cannot leave for lunch because he is the ONLY manager there. He is also a salaried employee. My question though is about the taking away Vacation pay, just like that. We live in California. Thank you for your answer in advance. Victoria Lawson


Asked on 1/14/16, 12:47 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Because employee's in California are "at will," meaning they can be let go at any time for any reason that is not prohibited by anti-discrimination laws, or no reason at all, the employer has the lesser included right to change the terms and conditions of employment at any time. The only thing they CANNOT do is fail to pay compensation earned up to the time of the change. Vacation time is considered earned when it accrues. So an employer can cancel vacation pay going forward, but they must either honor the paid vacation time accrued up to the date they announce the change, or pay it out in cash at the employee's current rate of pay.

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Answered on 1/14/16, 10:30 am


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