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Benefits
When I began work for a bulk mail company, I read the employee
handbook to make sure I understood the rules and expectations,
procedures, etc. One of the “benefits” they afforded their part-time
employees (everyone was part-time except the supervisors and office
manager) was a paid vacation day for every six months you worked
without taking any days off. That’s six months of never being late or
sick. In retrospect, I realize that expecting any benefits at all as a
part-time employee was a bit optimistic, but at the time I just
figured I would do my best and if I didn’t make it six months without
missing a day, it would not be a big loss.
The six months went past, and my birthday rolled around, and I
realized that I actually did qualify for that cute little vacation
day, so I asked for an updated copy of the employee handbook just to
make sure it was still in there. (It was.)
The next payday, I saw that they hadn’t included the vacation pay, so
I went in and talked with the office manager, thinking it was just a
little oversight and could be easily rectified. The office manager
said “There is no paid time off for part-timers.” I reminded her of
the handbook, and she said “Oh, we changed that.” When I asked when
it had changed, she said, “The day before you went on vacation.”
22 Comments to Benefits
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LOL…that sucks….
labor board
damn!
I call bullshit.
Perhaps you should have made sure you had the vacation day coming before taking it off.
Fucking idiots.
So… you took the day off without clearing it with anyone first? Sure, it was a dick move on the company’s part to arbitrarily decide to change this without informing people, but it serves you right for just making the assumption.
You should have asked for the new handbook right then.
aha she got you, hilarious to read. (but sad for you
)
At that point, i would have demanded a copy of the new employees handbook with the date of publication (yes, they’re supposed to put the date of change in there), because until that new handbook is out, the old one stands…
Don’t they have to notify you of that in writing?
Doesn’t matter. It’s STILL in the handbook, and they didn’t notify you when you went on vacation (just a day after they supposedly made the change). I’d push it, just for the hell of it.
I hate to ask this but did you even have permission from your supervisor to take a day of vacation or did you just take the day? Just curious, that’s all.
Come on folks. Really? Policy and the handbook do go hand-in-hand. But if policy changes, then in all reality, a change in the handbook doesn’t then instantly occur. So, forget what the handbook said. If policy changed, then that’s that. I’m not saying that it’s right…but it is what it is.
NLRB time.
The employer can change employee handbooks at any time… HOWEVER, if it is to shorten vacation time given to employees, it is not supposed to affect the time that has already accrued if it does then you have a case against them, though do you really want to fight them on one day?
Sorry, that is a totally underhanded way to operate a company. If the policy changes, employees must be notified in writing, whether it’s in the handbook or not. Even a simple e-mail would suffice. What is really sleazy is that they went ahead and let the employee take the day off and just decided not to pay the OP. If they were being honest they would have called the OP in and said you can’t have the day off tomorrow. The OP could have hauled this company before the labor board, although the amount of money was probably too small to be worth it. I hope the OP found a new job after that – I wouldn’t stick around to see what other ways they came up with to cheat me in the future.
PHA-Q. I quit.
Seriously? You think this is the employee’s fault? Legally your company has to have signed documentation from all employees stating that they are aware of any and all changes. The company can’t go changing the handbook whenever it suits them.
sorry, Donkey.. but it does have to occur. Any policy change has to be in writing, and dated (whether electronically written or physically written) .
We’ve had to actually redo our entire handbooks in our office, and the first thing that was done, was the email that was sent out to all employees was basically dated, photocopied, and put in EVERY handbook as a loose-leaf “appendix” page.
There has to be something in writing that states a policy has changed and a date of the change.
Mark…what I was trying to say was that, depending on the size of the company, there may have been no way to rewrite the policy book, or at least the certain section and have it printed and distributed within a day.
Now, everyone keeps saying policy changes have to be in writing. Where do you guys get that piece of info???
@donkey puncher: If you don’t notify your employees of policy changes in writing, you have no legal proof that you’ve notified them at all and you will be in deep trouble if you get sued for wrongful termination.
@Jeff…well, then the burden is on the OP.