Can your employer deny your earned vacation request for no reason?
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
Can your employer deny your earned vacation request for no reason?
I put a request in for vacation 45 days in advance. Company policy is 30 days. The same day Iput in my general manager said to me, that he was not giving me that week off any more; I have had the same week off for the last 6 years. No reason was given and when I asked him why I was told to stop questioning his authority and to get back to work.
Asked on August 16, 2011 Pennsylvania
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
Unfortunately, you don't have a case here. Once vacation is earned an employer cannot take it away. However vacation time and sick time (i.e. PTO) is not an automatic benefit of employment; it is a discretionary benefit that an employer may or may not provide. Therefore, while such time cannot be taken once earned, an employer can dictate when and how it is used. And it can do so for any reason or no reason at all.
In "at will" work relationships, employers can set the terms and conditions of employment much as it sees fit; in turn an employee can choose to work for that employer or not. Absent a union agreement, employment contract or other company policy that prohibits this action, no law has been violated by your employer. So unless there is some form of actionable discrimination at play in this situation (and you did not indicate that to be the case), you have no legal claim here.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.