New Stipulations on Existing Sick Day Hours Earned

[Jeff1962]

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

For years, I received 10 vacation days and 10 sick days. I was able to bank up to 20 hours of sick days over the years which was the cap allowed.

Recently, my employer switched to PTO in July. I now get 15 days a year and sick days/vacation/personal days, etc. all fall under PTO.

Unused PTO, up to five days, can be transferred to the next year but only for one year. Then, we all reset to 15 PTO days.

We were told we were still allowed to use our accrued sick bank days but only after all PTO has been used.

Many of us are very upset with this as these hours were earned when our policy was under the prior employee handbook.

Using our sick days now becomes very challenging. Unless someone has a major illness/accident, it's unlikely they'll get used. We feel we've basically had 20 days of pay taken from us.

Is this legal? I know companies don't have to give sick days but we're talking about sick days already acquired.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Unless there is a binding contract that says otherwise it is completely legal. Paid sick days are not required under Federal or state law.

 

[Jeff1962]

I guess that leads to what exactly an employee handbook is legally. I don't work under a contract. I did have to sign a form which said I agreed to abide to the handbook.

In that handbook, sick days could be taken anytime once acquired.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I'd be willing to bet that somewhere in that handbook there is wording that allows the employer to make changes.

But no a handbook does not rise to the level of an employment contract if properly written. In fact it should say it isn't a contract.

 

[cbg]

There is nothing in TN law that would make your employer's policy illegal and employers are allowed to change their policies going forward.

If you want to take your "contract" (which is probably nothing of the kind, but a non-binding employment agreement) and copies of both the old and new handbooks/policies to a TN lawyer to see if they are binding on the employer in perpetuity, go ahead. Otherwise, however, I think you're stuck with the new policy.

 

[Jeff1962]

I'm looking for loopholes.

Our PTO is acquired based on hours worked. Each pay period, we get X hours of PTO.

Since there will be no PTO earned the beginning of our fiscal year, I wonder if we can tap into our sick day bank.

If anyone is to quit their job, they'll only receive payment for those PTO days earned. Not those yet acquired.

 

[xylene]

If it is any consolation, "banked" time off was never anything but a gimmick to get you to work sick.

Once employers relaized this could be too costly they switched.

The lesson - the employer / employee relationship is fundamentally one of exploitation. Act accordingly.

 

[Jeff1962]

The lesson - the employer / employee relationship is fundamentally one of exploitation. Act accordingly.

Yeah. Working for a nonprofit, you hope they value fairness over greed—especially with their longtime staff who is already underpaid.

 

[cbg]

If anyone is to quit their job, they'll only receive payment for those PTO days earned. Not those yet acquired.

That is quite standard practice. I've been working in Employee Benefits for coming up on 40 years now, and I have yet to see a company anywhere in the US that would pay out days that have not been accrued yet. Not even in my state, which is quite possibly the most generous state in the US when it comes to vacation benefits (along with California) and where the payment of earned but unused vacation days is mandated by law. Which it is NOT, in Tennessee, by the way.

If your employer has been paying out days sick days at all, OR days that haven't been earned yet, consider yourself very fortunate because that is neither required nor standard.

 

[Jeff1962]

It used to be that we received our full vacation and sick days for the year on the first day of the fiscal year. We didn't get paid for sick days but the vacation days were if someone left.

Vacation days were looked at as a bonus of sorts.

 

[cbg]

Which does not change any of my answers above.

I understand that you are looking for a loophole that will force the employer to continue the existing policy. Do you understand that, other than the very slim possibility that the original policy is written in a way that creates a contract, there isn't one?

 

[Jeff1962]

Which does not change any of my answers above.

Didn't expect it to. I was just sharing how things used to be.

We now are able to bank a week of our PTO into the next year. I fully expect we'll be screwed out of that too if enough employees do it.