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Difference in vacation payment

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dtm1966

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Texas

There are 5 employees suing our former employer in small claims court for unused vacation pay. I worked for a contracting firm A (who basically was my former employer – it was a one man show) who placed me at firm B. This was a long-standing agreement of 20 years. I worked for company A for 5 years. He had a vague vacation policy that did not address vacation pay upon termination.

In March the company B decided not to renew the contract. There were 10 employees working for company A at the time. Company B contracted another company for the same services and this new company offered to hire me and 7 of the other employees but not the other 2 based on the understanding company B would like to continue working with us.

Of the 10 employees 7 employees had 80 hrs of unused vacation each. Of the 7 employees, 6 went with the new company and 1 was not offered a position. So 6 of us with vacation resigned on March 14 from Company A and the 1 of us with vacation was laid off on March 14 by Company A because they had no more work (they only had the one contract). If we 6 had not resigned, Company A would have also laid us off too. My employer (Company A) paid the 1 employee he laid off his unused vacation pay but refuses to pay the 6 employees who resigned.

Although the 1 employee who was laid off says he got paid for his unused vacation, he refuses to put anything in writing for us, saying he was paid and that’s all he cares about. (He is angry with us because we were offered a position with the new company when he was not, even though we had no input). My former employer has requested jury trials and says he wishes to go through discovery prior to the sample claims trials. He has not actually set the hearing date for the discovery in from of the judge yet.

My questions:

Does my former employer need to be consistent in application of whatever unwritten policy he uses to either pay or not pay an employee’s un-used vacation?

Is there any real difference between the employees who resigned and the one who was laid off since it happened on the same day and resulted from the same contract being cancelled?

Is there any way in discovery (if it happens) to request documentation (payroll records etc) to show he paid the one employee since this is the only way we would be able to prove it if my employer denies it

Thank you
 



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