Work came in and took our PTO we had accrued...is this normal/legal?

[4u 2 nv]

So my job recently came in and confiscated everyone’s PTO/Vacation (sick time was not touched and is still accrued). We accrue PTO/Vacation weekly and depending on your time with the company you have a certain limit. My limit is 100 hours of built up PTO/Vacation and once at that number I can no longer accrue more (obviously). I was at 90 hours when the confiscation happened. What they did was confiscate the hours, and put 100 hours (my limit) back into my “bucket”. I did get 10 MORE hours than I had but they are no longer accruable and must be used from Jan 1st to Dec 31st of that year. The nice thing is that when Jan 1 hits I have 100 hours back in my bucket. PTO unused gets taken at the end of the year. The big kicker is if I were to leave I don’t get paid out for a single hour but before the confiscation and restructuring I would have been paid out my 90 hours (for example).

The thing that makes everyone mad is that they gave us a week’s notice saying they were doing the confiscation. If someone, for example, had just gone on a two week vacation (80 hours worth of PTO) and emptied their accrued PTO/Vacation bucket they were rewarded with a fresh new 100 PTO when the ‘buckets” were refilled with the new PTO. I was, in a sense, penalized for not going on more vacations.

Thing happen with anyone else? I am guessing it’s from a large RIF my company just had and the payout from laying off nearly 300 people nationwide hurt when they realized how much they would need to payout in unused PTO/Vacation. Is this even legal?

 

[Coiled03]

Companies change vacation policies all the time. I don't see anything illegal about it, although giving only one week notice is pretty shady.

 

[scott_0]

my job gives you until the end of the fiscal year (June 30) every year to use your PTO, they alert us each year, use it or lose it........

 

[Blackness03]

Sorry the lesson to be learned here is to take more vacations. I like it.

 

[oldmodman]

The legality varies from state to state.

Some states require that everything the company can and cannot do is spelled out in detail in the company handbook.

You would have to check with your own state's labor laws to see if what they did is legal. But just remember. It's the squeaky wheel that gets fired.

 

[DriftwoodSVT]

I'd imagine it's legal, or they wouldn't have done it.

My max carry over for vacation is 268 hours per year. Anything I don't use rolls over into sick time, which is now at 675 hours.

Between my vacation, comp time and sick leave, I have 1044 hours set aside. Roughly 26 weeks or 6.5 months.

Good thing is I can use it to retire early. I can also opt for a payout check for my vacation and comp time.

 

[wht93gted]

I have unlimited vacation\sick\pto\work from home\etc, we simply have 1 bucket called "Unlimited PTO".

It's a nice benefit, but there's no such thing as "payout" when you retire\quit\or get fired. You still have to put it for your PTO, and if there's a pattern or abuse of the benefit recognized, you'll lose your privileges.

 

[4u 2 nv]

Most of us understand and are appreciate to atleast have a job as they RIF’d so many people and we are still here. Like mentioned the 1 week notice is disheartening and the fact that people that had just ZEROED out there bucket got the 100 also.

 

[4u 2 nv]

I have unlimited vacation\sick\pto\work from home\etc, we simply have 1 bucket called "Unlimited PTO".

It's a nice benefit, but there's no such thing as "payout" when you retire\quit\or get fired. You still have to put it for your PTO, and if there's a pattern or abuse of the benefit recognized, you'll lose your privileges.

That unlimited is nice. It hasnt always been annoying here lol. When my wife had our baby I had 100 saved up PTO, 4-5 floating holidays, and about 75 hours of sick time accrued. THe company was nice enough to let me take 5-6 weeks off 100% paid.

Not trying to whine or complain about it but more annoyed I didnt use it lol.

 

[CompOrange04GT]

my job gives you until the end of the fiscal year (June 30) every year to use your PTO, they alert us each year, use it or lose it........

yup. My job gives me 3 weeks that i HAVE to use, or it all goes bye bye

 

[Deceptive]

OP, my work has changed ours for the 3rd time in 6 months. They took away our sick time and vacation and gave us PTO to cover holidays, sick, and vacation while eliminating about a 100 hrs accrual a year on Jan 1st. June 1st they announced cutting our bank hours allowed, and today they announced they were trashing our accrual cone July 1st and going to giving us hours on July 1st for the entire year.

 

[trc46]

Take out your 2.5 weeks then quit

 

[DHG1078]

My company gives 2 weeks PTO each year, but there is 2 unpaid weeks over x-mas/new years that the company is shut down for. So the choice is no vacation and get PTO for the holidays, or have some vacation and no PTO for the holidays. Can't wait to go somewhere that actually gives vacation lol.

 

[Dbzguy]

My company recently did the same where they combined sick and vacation time into one thing and it screwed a grip of people.

 

[YJSONLY]

I'd imagine it's legal, or they wouldn't have done it.

My max carry over for vacation is 268 hours per year. Anything I don't use rolls over into sick time, which is now at 675 hours.

Between my vacation, comp time and sick leave, I have 1044 hours set aside. Roughly 26 weeks or 6.5 months.

Good thing is I can use it to retire early. I can also opt for a payout check for my vacation and comp time.

Be careful with this whole theory. My mother worked for the state. Well the state privatized the medical part (where she worked) and lost a ton of time. she worked there for 30 plus years. And hardly took time off.

 

[Katy TX5.0]

I get a month off each year that resets every January. It's better if you want to take trips early in the year. You might have a clause that a certain amount of hours can rollover for one year.

 

[...Mark...]

Like others said use it or lose it.

We have until Feb 1st. After that its gone.

 

[Katy TX5.0]

Since we're on the topic of vacation, I wonder why people think it's an honor to not use it or are scared to take vacation.

 

[mustangvsix]

We literally just switched from a accrual system to a bank system. To my best understanding it is a benefit the company offers, it is not a legal right to have PTO, so they are free to switch at any time. I too being in the same bucket as you having lots of PTO built up I see your point about losing out on taking the vacation but I say just be happy and move a long. At the end of the day just happy I have that benefit at all.

 

[Junior00]

We had a major policy change 3 months prior to my starting my current job where they reduced the total maxes for all employees hired after the policy change date but I've never seen a change that sweeping with just a weeks notice, especially one where accrued leave time is reduced or completely removed. We're on 2 wk pay periods and they reduced the max for sick leave from 1080 hrs to 780 and the max vacation from 780 to 600 across the board, they did however pay out at regular time to anyone over the limit on vacation leave and those hired prior were able to stay at 1080 for their sick.

Good thing is we can cash out down to 65 days sick (780 hours) and those at their max (which I am) get their accrual added to their check every pay period so it adds about 3k to my pay every year. I've gotten lucky but many others' like yourself have gotten screwed in this recession.