Legal Question in Employment Law in California
When I was hired, part of my package included 10 days vacation per year. I am salary so on January 1 of every year, I get the 10 days vacation to use or lose through out that year. Including myself, there are 4 of us who are qualified to work my shift work position and so when one of us takes "vacation" the other three have to work the extra hours to cover for the one on vacation. So we really don't get a vacation, we are just trading shifts with each other with no overtime pay because we are salary. This has been going on for three years. Now we might be able to get a 5th person qualified so we can have an extra to fill in and actually get a true vacation. The problem is that now that we might get an actual vacation, my boss wants to charge us 1.5 days vacation for each day we take because our normal work day is a 12 hour shift. Can he charge us 1.5 days vacation for each day we take?
2 Answers from Attorneys
No. To qualify as an exempt salaried employee, you must be paid, charged vacation and sick time, and in every other way accounted for your work time in units of a "day" or longer. There can be no .5 days or 1.5 days.
Also, �use it or lose it� vacation policies, i.e. those in which employees lose earned vacation if they do not use it by a certain date, are illegal in California. An employer may put a cap on how much vacation may be earned, but may not take away vacation the employee has already earned.
Related Questions & Answers
-
Can i come to work with less than 8 hrs off between shifts? Asked 8/13/11, 1:37 pm in United States California Labor and Employment Law