Another Reason That Employees Need Unions

This is from Slate's workplace advice column:

Dear Direct Report,

My office announced it’s closing for the week between Christmas and New Year’s, since so many people take time off then anyway. Great! But then they announced that we’ll need to use our PTO for that week, even if we were otherwise planning to work. That makes no sense to me! If we were ready and willing to work, why should we lose vacation time just because the office decided to close? Our unused vacation time rolls over to the next year, so this means we’ll have a week less to use next year than we had counted on having. Is this even legal?

—Fuming

Dear Fuming,

It’s legal, but it’s a bad policy. Unfortunately, it’s not an uncommon policy; a lot of offices that close that week handle holiday closures the same way. But when you’re talking about a full week, that’s a significant bite out of most people’s vacation leave.

You and your co-workers can try pushing back! Point out that some employees have that vacation time allotted for other uses, and this will wreak havoc on anyone who needed that week for, say, their kid’s wedding or a long-planned family trip next year. Your employer may or may not budge, but the more of you who speak up, the better your chances of getting it reconsidered.

First, the appropriation of employees' vacation time may not be against the law, but it certainly might violate the terms of employment, especially if they are set out in an employee handbook. If so, employees would have a much stronger argument than merely speaking up or pointing out that the policy will "wreak havoc" with their plans. The employer obviously knows that already, however, and does not seem to care.

In a union setting, of course, there would be a contract that firmly spells out an employee's PTO, and it surely would not require the use of vacation days when the employer chooses to close the office. Most important, there would be a grievance procedure for raising such issues, and it would be far more effective and available than a few people "pushing back."

Comments

[Enrique]

unless the employees are police officer or teachers?