Legal Question in Employment Law in Louisiana

I've worked for this Louisiana employer for several years. It's been the employer's policy during my tenure there that vacation leave was earned in the year prior to the year in which it was used. The entire staff has had its vacation leave that was earned last year to use this year revoked by the employer, with no notice last year or year to date. We have also not been compensated for it. The employer began a new policy in January of this year, stating that vacation leave must now be earned and used in the same year. Our bank of days earned from last year has vanished. We've yet to be directly addressed by the employer; we only found out about this from other employees who tried to schedule vacation based on last year's earned leave, only to be told that they haven't accrued enough this year to cover their request. My questions are these: Must the employee no longer be employed before sending a demand letter for compensation for accrued leave to be included in the final check, and assuming the employer refuses, to proceed accordingly seeking whatever relief is available? Since it's always been policy that vacation leave does not carry over from one year to the next, does any legal right we have to seek compensation expire at the end of this year? Does promissory estoppel possibly address situations such as this? I made an inquiry to the LA DOL Wage and Hour Division, only to receive an email in response saying we had no right to compensation for this leave we've already earned because it was not the result of actual labor, but merely a benefit. We have more than 50 people on staff now, plus the employees who terminated this year, who were also not paid for the leave they earned last year (only pro-rated vacation they've earned year to date). Thank you.

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