Legal Question in Administrative Law in Iowa

At my last employer our policy manual stated that all full time employees who has worked there over 20 years are entitled to 25 days of annual leave. Later in that paragraph it states that any employee not scheduled to work 40 hrs/wk (here I assumed it meant part time employees) shall accrue leave proportionate to the number of hours worked. SICK LEAVE - Employees earning sick leave shall be entitled to one day per each month worked. HEALTH INSURANCE - Full time employees working at least 30 hours but less than 40 shall pay a premium based on number of hours worked. My status as a full time employee was never changed even though, for several years, we suffered an hour reduction during the summer months of June 1 through Sept 1. During this time I received full holiday pay and only paid 50% of the health insurance premium just as I always had as a full time employee. Upon my resignation I was referencing my employee manual to be sure I was proceeding according to the policy manual. This is when I discovered that as far back as 2008, any time I didn't have 40 hours in per week, my accrued leave time was reduced proportionate to the number of hours I worked. If I'm entitled to 25 days of annual leave after I've worked there over 20 years how can they reduce my leave time without an official notice.?


Asked on 4/27/17, 10:54 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Luedeman solo practitioner

You live in a right to work state and unless you have a contract of employment or are covered by a collective bargaining agreement an employer can do what they want, to whom they want, at any time they want, for any reason, good reason or no reason at all, and they don't have to give notice to anyone or account for their reasons.

Also it seems as if there's some confusion of your status as full time or part time employee. It sounds to me as if your former employer just now figured out that you were not a full time employee going all the way back to 2008.

I think you would do well to retain an attorney in your area to confirm this but I do not see where they're out of line. Of course it would have been nice for them to notify you but it's still a right to work state and they're not obligated to do much of anything for anyone.

The other thing is that they might ask you for the excess health insurance cost they paid that they did not have to. Do you want to kick that sleeping dog?

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Answered on 4/27/17, 1:08 pm


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