Employer dragging their feet on separation

[malla]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

*Issue solved*

I quit my job three weeks ago because they refused to accept my doctor's note for an illness. The doctor had wrote me off for a full week, they refused to accept or even look at it. I told them whatever, this is ridiculous, I quit, adios, goodbye, and walked out. No drama, no screaming, just a verbal "I quit" and a salute goodbye.

The issue: About a week later, I was able to log into the active employee area of the employer website, not the former employee area. So not only am I still active in the system, I am being marked absent every day I was scheduled since I quit. I called the national HR who was not amused. Told me I should have been long out of the system by now and to immediately go down and tell my ex employer to fill out and sign separation papers. I met with the lead manager who outright refused to do so, saying they will do it "next week". Which was another 6 days away. I said I'm here now, do it now. Oh, we'll do it next week. I called national HR again, who again, was not amused. They said it will take them 5 to 7 days to process me out. They are going to separate me instead of the employer.

My issue is...am I being set up to be fired instead of being a quit? I still have access to online the employee portal and am still being marked absent. I am owed a weeks pay (these are hours I actually worked), sick pay, plus 40 hours vacation pay. I assume they are dragging their feet because they can. I do not want unemployment, I just want to be rid of them.

Can I be fired after I quit? Should I expect them to refuse to pay what I'm owed?

 

[FlyingRon]

What makes you think a doctor's note (or a note from your mommy) and any legal bearing on anything? You quit and that's that. You have no right to demand they do anything with how they handle things on their internal computer. I have no idea what you think "setting you up to be fired" means to anything. You can't get much worse than quiting on no notice.

You likely are not owed "sick pay." There is no Federal or Florida law that requires you then to pay you sick pay (accrued or otherwise). The only case where this would make a difference is with a collective bargaining agreement or the like and even then you're on thin ice. Accrued vacation (that's vacation earned but not taken, as oppsed to anyt hat may be authorized to be taken), does need to be paid out. You can protest this with the state DOL along with your last paycheck (again the computer issue is immaterial).

 

[CTU]

What makes you think a doctor's note (or a note from your mommy) and any legal bearing on anything? You quit and that's that. You have no right to demand they do anything with how they handle things on their internal computer. I have no idea what you think "setting you up to be fired" means to anything. You can't get much worse than quiting on no notice.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Well, fingers anyway.

You likely are not owed "sick pay." There is no Federal or Florida law that requires you then to pay you sick pay (accrued or otherwise). The only case where this would make a difference is with a collective bargaining agreement or the like and even then you're on thin ice. Accrued vacation (that's vacation earned but not taken, as oppsed to anyt hat may be authorized to be taken), does need to be paid out. You can protest this with the state DOL along with your last paycheck (again the computer issue is immaterial).

The words "sense", "of" and "entitlement" spring to mind.

 

[cbg]

am I being set up to be fired instead of being a quit? I don't know. What difference do you think it will make?

I still have access to online the employee portal and am still being marked absent. Okay, but that's legally meaningless under the circumstances.

I am owed a weeks pay, sick pay, plus 40 hours vacation pay. Not under the law, you aren't. Under the law, you are not owed a single penny beyond pay for the time you actually worked. Regardless of what your status is in the company computer.

I assume they are dragging their feet because they can. I do not want unemployment, I just want to be rid of them. And it would appear that you are. You're the one tracking the situation.

Can I be fired after I quit? Yes, you can. Though I question whether that's what's happening.

Should I expect them to refuse to pay what I'm owed? Again, legally, unless there is time which you actually worked for which you have not been paid, they don't owe you anything.

 

[cbg]

Accrued vacation (that's vacation earned but not taken, as oppsed to anyt hat may be authorized to be taken), does need to be paid out. You can protest this with the state DOL along with your last paycheck (again the computer issue is immaterial).


Not in Florida, it's not. Florida has no requirement that unused vacation be paid out. Use it or lose it policies are legal in Florida. Florida also does not have a state DOL.

 

[FlyingRon]

[
Not in Florida, it's not. Florida has no requirement that unused vacation be paid out. Use it or lose it policies are legal in Florida. Florida also does not have a state DOL.

Not's not strictly true. They must pay out the accrued vacation (based on whatever the corporate stated accrual) is). as if they were any other form of wages. Essentially, by having a policy that vacation time accrues, it becomes promised wages, an implicit contract. Now what the company can do is not "accrue" a years vacation until the end of the year even though they allow the employee to "take" it earlier in the year (which was what I was trying to say by accrued but not authorized). However, they can't just retroactively say, we're not going to pay Joe accrued vacation because we don't like the terms he left under.

You're incorrect as to the department of labor. Florida does indeed have a department of labor (well they call it "Employment and Labor"). What they don't have is a program within that department to process wage and hour complaints. In that part, my advice was indeed incorrect. He can file a Federal claim on the unpaid "normal" wages. He'd have to file a lawsuit against the employer on a vacation only issue.

 

[cbg]

http://www.jacksonlewis.com/media/pnc/2/media.2752.pdf

Page 4. Vacation is not unconditionally due at termination and use it or lose it policies are allowed.

 

[commentator]

Florida is one of the most employer friendly, least worker friendly states in the united states. Minimum wage for all hours actually worked is all this person is ever going to be owed. No vacation pay or sick pay is required to be paid unless there is a union contract that mandates such, highly unlikely.

But I am puzzled as to why the person actually up and quit in the first place. He/she says they "refused to accept" the doctor's note for the absence. So this person very unwisely stood up and walked out. If they were about to terminate you, if you were on the verge of getting fired, that was the one occasion when having a doctor's note would've stood you in very good stead and meant something. Because if you are fired for an absence with a doctor's note, you are very likely to be approved for unemployment insurance, provided you have the other monetary eligibility to set up a claim.

Being fired as opposed to walking away does not improve your "permanent record" or your employment history in any way, as every employer you will have for the rest of your work life knows anybody can walk out and quit as they are about to be fired. It doesn't sound one bit better as a reason for leaving a job. And being able to be terminated, then approved for unemployment because the employer did not have a valid misconduct reason to terminate you does have some weight. (The unemployment system figures that you were unable to avoid being ill enough to need medical treatment, therefore it is not willful misconduct worthy of firing, no matter what your past attendance record may have been like.)

They probably were leaving you on the company active employee site so that if and when you did file for unemployment, which does cost the company as a whole money, they could show that you had actually quit due to your failure to report back to work as you were supposed to, though they had not officially fired you. This would be making it almost completely impossible for you to draw unemployment, when, if they had fired you with a doctor's note, you'd have stood a very good chance of being approved. You lost, in this case.

Proudly asserting that you "don't want unemployment" is just a misunderstanding of what it is and how the labor laws, there aren't many, actually operate. Unemployment is not a welfare system based on needs, is not taken from the general tax payers, it is insurance paid by the employers against your being terminated by the company for a reason beyond your control. Being ill and forced to miss work (with a doctor's note) is one of those circumstances. While it would be legal for the employer to terminate you anyway, ignoring your medical excuse, you would have been likely to qualify for unemployment benefits (in FL, $275 a week for about 6 months) if you had held off on the noble gestures and not walked off the job by your own choice.

 

[commentator]

Yes, Florida does have a department of labor. What they do not have is a state division of the Federal Wage and Hour department. They figure you're pretty much on your own if you have a problem with one of their employers, and if you file a wage complaint in Florida, it gets kicked over to the regional Federal Wage and Hour division, where they have about six states, the entire southeast region to work, so though these people will actually take your claim and may work it, it will take a tad longer than you'd like.

 

[commentator]

As for suing the employer to get vacation pay, if this is, as this OP indicates, a large employer with a "national HR" there will be no discussion of how the vacation pay issue is handled, it will already be set for every location in every state, and you will get what you get when they decree that you will get it, very likely in concord with the state's laws. This person just needs to move on and find another job, wiser and better informed, and stay off the old job's web site, even if he's/she's not been officially removed.

 

[malla]

What makes you think a doctor's note (or a note from your mommy) and any legal bearing on anything?

Never said it did. That wasn't the issue I asked about.

Accrued vacation (that's vacation earned but not taken, as oppsed to anyt hat may be authorized to be taken), does need to be paid out. You can protest this with the state DOL along with your last paycheck (again the computer issue is immaterial).

Human resources has replied to my email that I am indeed owed the vacation pay and weeks pay (the weeks pay being hours I actually worked) and should be paid out within two weeks. By dragging their feet, it seemed as if they were trying to not pay but HR is taking care of the issue now and should be finalized by the end of this month.

 

[cbg]

Then that's your employer's policy, and that's fine. No problem there.

 

[malla]

Proudly asserting that you "don't want unemployment" is just a misunderstanding

There is indeed a misunderstanding since you seem to think I have some sort of contempt for unemployment. This was a part time night job. I doubt I would have qualified for unemployment because my day job is full time. Thus, I had no intention to apply. I was simply puzzled as to why I was still in the system three weeks later. You (are the only one who) answered my question. Thank you.

HR returned my email stating they would start the separation process (instead of my ex employer) by stating I was due a weeks pay and the vacation time. This was hours I actually worked and vacation time accrued due to my work hours, not just pay I "thought" I was entitled to as someone else suggested. They can drag their feet for months if they want to, they have to pay it out at some point, lol.

 

[malla]

Then that's your employer's policy, and that's fine. No problem there.

It just struck me as odd that employer was doing one thing and HR doing something different. As they say, one hand doesn't know what the other is doing.

Thanks for the replies guys...Going to mark this solved.

 

[malla]

Again, legally, unless there is time which you actually worked for which you have not been paid, they don't owe you anything.

I should clarify that "the weeks pay" in my OP is hours I actually worked. It appears my OP left people thinking I was "entitled" to a weeks pay for the hell of it.

I have yet to be paid for this that worked.