how far back can employer take time off vacation hours for exempt employee

[kajsdottir]

What is the name of your state? Florida

I have been employed by the same healthcare company for almost five years, as an exempt employee. My anniversary date is May, and I have 80 hours vacation. This Monday I received an email from my boss, stating they have "caught up" on "vacation days" I have taken since May, and she informed they are taking five days from my 80 hrs of vacation, leaving me a balance of 40 hours, and that my next check (received today) will reflect the 40 vac. hours. I have missed 8 days since June 4th. Five of those days were sick days home with my five year old (documented illness by his pediatrician) (two seperate occurances). And three of the days I took were personal "comp" days for working extra in the months previous. In the email my boss "comp'd" me three days for our recent evacuation due to Hurricane Charley (that occured just two weeks ago,) and those days were applied back to time I called off sick in July. My question is, I understand they can take my vacation time if I miss full days for personal reasons, we don't have an official sick time policy...how far back can they deduct from my vacation time..since these are sick days I took months ago and now they're taking them from my vacation three months later...and can they apply 'comp' days I received just 2 weeks to time I took two months ago?
Does it matter if my fellow nurse managers have not had the same policy applied to them with sick time? No one has ever had sick time taken from their vacation.
And, if it matters, the last time I called off sick to work was may of 2003.
Any help you could give me is very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Beth3]

They can deduct them as far back as they wish. Your employer doesn't have to offer any vacation to begin with, doesn't have to offer "comp days," doesn't have to offer paid sick days, etc. If they want to attribute any absence time to the vacation benefit they provide, they can do so. No laws require those attributions be made timely.

If your boss offered you some comp days and now they're being charged to your vacation time in error, you need to discuss that with your boss and see if he'll agree to restore that vacation time to you. If he's not, that's that.

 

[cbg]

They can go back as far as they want to unless you have a bona fide contract (not an offer letter, not an employee handbook, a CONTRACT) that specifies otherwise.

Yes, they can apply vacation time to sick days. Since they don't HAVE to provide vacation days at all, they can require you to use them pretty much any way they want. While the law says that they can't dock you for sick days unless they have a bona fide sick time policy, nothing in the law says that they can't dock your vacation TIME in order to keep your paycheck whole.

Yes, they can apply the comp days they gave you two weeks ago to time you took two months ago. They don't HAVE to give you comp time, either.

As far as whether or not it matters that they have not applied the same policies to other nurse managers, that depends. But unless you have a VALID reason to believe that you were treated differently BECAUSE OF your race, religion, national origin, gender, disability, pregnancy, or because you are over 40, the answer is almost certainly no, it doesn't matter at all.

Please note that I am not saying I agree with with way they are handling things. I don't. But my disagreeing with their methods does not change the fact that everything you have described is legal.