Legal Question in Employment Law in California
change in holiday benefits
in 12/00 we received a memo stating what the paid holidays would be for 2001. No where on the memo did it say anyone would be forced to work those holidays. on 1/8/01 we received a memo stating all customer service reps would be forced to work all federal holidays (being pd time and 1/2). Question is:can a company change their haoliday guidelines once the year has started? Also, no one was advised prior to 2001 that this would be happening and no one ever agreed to it. Do we have any recourse? Prior to 2001, the company gave us the day off with pay and only asked volunteers to work on Thanksgving day and Christmas day. Also, can the company hold us responsible if we are unable to work holidays since we would not be able to find day care that would be open?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: change in holiday benefits
Most employment relationships are for no fixed period of time. The terms of employment may be changed at any time, subject to notice. An employer may not change the terms retroactively, but may give notice that from this point forward, new terms, conditions or benefits may apply. Any benefits that have already vested cannot be lost. But benefits like holiday pay, which have not yet been earned, can be changed or even eliminated. Employers have the sole discretion of determining work hours and schedules. The only limits would be imposed by a contract prohibiting such change for a fixed period of time (usually found in union contracts), or if the employer schedules employees in a discriminatory manner. If you cannot convince the employer to back off it's onerous mandates, using employee morale as your best argument, you may want to have a lawyer review the policies to see if any illegal practice was implemented.
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