What can be done, (vacation pay out)

[Whiterook]

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

I started working for a very large company in January of 2007 as a term employee, on a 1 to 3 year contract. After the first year of work I started to save my vacation time, so in the event of a lay off I would have money in the bank .

At the two year mark were given 2 weeks notice that we were going to be let go on January 28th of 09. In the last week of our employment we were told that the company have other positions open and if we wanted them we would be pushed to the front of the line and was given the phone number to call for the interview.
After going through the over the phone interview, the recruiter told me that I got the position and that as of the 28th of January 09 I was work complete on my old position and be paid out on my vacation time. And that I was to report at the given location on the morning of January 29th 09 for the new position.

On the 28th we cleaned our trucks out and turn in all keys tools. At the end of the day we were turning in our company ID's and waiting to be given our pay checks.

This is where every thing went bad. We were told that we no longer job complete and that were were going to be transferred, so we would not be receiving our pay checks. And that all our vacation time was to be transferred to our new jobs.

Heres the problem, The first position was a $32.00 an hour job and all the vacation time was generated under the $32.00 an hour, and the new position was a $20.00 an hour job, so we our losing $12.00 an hour on every hour we had saved. For me I had 148 hours saved on the books.

We called the union and were told they couldent do that and they would take care of it and not to pass up the new position. So I proceeded to take the new job, Its been 9 months and the union has not done a thing to get our pay that was ours.

Can the company legally do this? Vacation is not given, it was earned.
What legal action can I or should I take? I have lost all faith in our union.

[pattytx]

If you are still employed by the same employer, they don't have to pay it out at all. The law states that vacation must be paid out at termination and at the rate in effect at the time of the termination. It does not say at the rate at which it was earned.

WERE you, in fact, terminated and rehired? Or did you just get another position?

[Whiterook]

We were not terminated. But as i stated before on our first contract we were not aloud to transfer to any other position, not even location for the the same job title. I guess they can change the rules to fit there needs. This company is pure evil.

[pattytx]

If you weren't terminated, the payout provision in the law does not apply.

[Zigner]

You are losing 37.5% of your previous income. You may very well be entitled to unemployment compensation...

[commentator]

Having accepted the new job and worked there at the greatly reduced salary for any period of time is the same as accepting this salary. If you now quit your job due to the low salary, you very probably will not be approved for benefits. The time to quit would have been when the company went into the "new company" mode. About Jan of 2009. They lied to you. About your only option is to find something else.

[Whiterook]

Thats what I was afraid of. Thank you all for the input.