Legal Question in Employment Law in Massachusetts
My wife has been at her company for 5 years. We had a baby at the end of last year, and after her maternity leave was up, she took an extra 2 weeks vacation time until we had child care set up.
Last week my wife was offered a new job at a competitor for a much higher pay rate and better benefits.
As she had been at her current work so long, she told them immediately so they could plan for her leaving at the end of August.
They told her that she needed to pay back 50 hours of the PTO she used back when our child was born. (No problem there, we expected this to happen)
Here is the issue we are having:
When she used the PTO, she was making $16 an hour. As of 2 weeks ago (a week before she got the new job offer) She got a raise to $17.50.
Now they are telling her she has 2 options: Pay back all 50 hours in the next paycheck at $16 an hour, or pay the 50 over the next 3 pay periods (20, 20 and then 10) but it would be at the new rate of $17.50.
I am pretty mad about this. Can they legally take back more money than they paid out? Are they just being jerks about it because she is leaving? Do we have any legal ground if she tries to argue the second option and they let her go earlier than her notice?
Option 1 is going to hurt because we live paycheck to paycheck and only having 30 hours for 2 weeks is a big deal. But the idea of paying them back more than they paid us is also very frustrating.
Any advice can be great help. Thanks!
1 Answer from Attorneys
Your answer requires another question: when she took her PTO, did she have 50 hours of accrued time or are they asking for this back because her account was "overdrawn" by taking the time off?
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