Paid Bereavement Leave rescinded after resignation?

[coyneflip]

State: Maryland

I resigned from a company May 25th. I was approved for paid bereavement to attend a funeral May 10th and 11th, prior to my resignation. I received my pay stub recently , and the bereavement was not paid. I asked my the owner of my former company why it was not paid, and he said he was not paying me for the bereavement because benefits like that are at his discretion and he was not going to pay me since I was leaving. I have emails that prove that the my bereavement was approved and was going to be paid initially. I also never received a benefits summary despite asking for it many times, which employers are required to give their employees under section 3-504(a)(1)(iii) of MWPCL, so I have nothing to reference for the company's bereavement policy except what my owner sent me in an email. I plan on placing an unpaid wages claim with the state, but if that is unsuccessful would I have any success filing a small claims suit, considering my former employer did not provide me a benefits summary and rescinded my paid bereavement without notifying me? I know bereavement is not a required benefit, but I would think an employer would have to comply with their own policies on such a benefit.

Edit: I should add that this employer is a smaller company that probably does not even have a written policy on bereavement. Yet, when I asked the owner if the company offered bereavement he said yes, and told me to put it in my time sheet as overhead. Again, I have emails proving he acknowledges this.

 

[HRZ]

berevement leave is not required by law ....and as far as I know the employer is free to change its policy going forward ....but as a first impression, employer here is seeking to retroactively cut the agreed pay for the time in question for a past event

 

[adjusterjack]

In addition to the section that you cited I think 3-505 may be even more helpful.

https://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2017/labor-and-employment/title-3/subtitle-5/

How much money is involved?

 

[adjusterjack]

berevement leave is not required by law

No, but notice about whether it is or isn't is required by law.

 

[cbg]

Then the OP can complain to the state about the lack of notice. However, in no state is paid bereavement time a requirement, and it is quite common, and quite legal, for paid time off of any kind to be rescinded or denied after an employee has given notice.

 

[FlyingRon]

The state requires the employer to stand by his stated policy. If the leave was approved under the company policy, I can't see how a subsequent resignation allowably changes this.

 

[cbg]

Counterpoint - if the policy provides for no paid leaves after resignation OR if such leaves are discretionary after resignation, then the employer is within his rights.

We can what-if about the policy all we want to, but in the end the OP's options are to make a complaint to the state, or to not make a complaint to the state.

 

[coyneflip]

Thanks for everyone's reply. I am going to go ahead and submit a labor compliant to the state since this is of not cost to me apart from time and postage, also citing section 3-505 (thanks adjusterjack).

The problem is this employer does not have a formal company policy defining bereavement and I am curious if the employer can just say the policy is "x" without providing the full scope of "x" to their employees, especially if in my case I can prove the bereavement was approved months prior to my resignation and that it was rescinded without notifying me, and that I was not made aware I would forfeit the bereavement by resigning.

It is less than $1000 dollars at stake so if the claim route does not work I will probably chock my losses rather than file suit, since it is probably more work than it is worth. This is more of a principle issue than a financial one, since I even called the owner after I resigned and he told me he would still honor my paid bereavement.

 

[coyneflip]

In addition to the section that you cited I think 3-505 may be even more helpful.

https://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2017/labor-and-employment/title-3/subtitle-5/

How much money is involved?

I assume the wording you were referring to was "each employer shall pay an employee or the authorized representative of an employee all wages due for work that the employee performed before the termination of employment ". Could bereavement be classified as wages since it was previously agreed upon I would be paid for those days? It is just over 700 dollars I am not being paid (pre-tax). Thanks again for your advice.

 

[cbg]

Even in states like California and Massachusetts I have never heard of bereavement time being classified as wages.

 

[coyneflip]

Even in states like California and Massachusetts I have never heard of bereavement time being classified as wages.

I would think the same.

The only thing holding me back from submitting my unpaid wages claim with the state is the possibility that my employer would file a lawsuit against me in retaliation. I have read there are laws against such retaliation, but cannot find the actual laws anywhere.

 

[cbg]

Your employer has no grounds on which to file any kind of lawsuit against you unless you have left out major portions of the story.

On the basis of the facts available to us, I don't know if you have a valid claim with the state or not. You might, you might not. But at least you have valid grounds to file and find out. But unless you have some legally binding duty to your employer that you have not indicated and which you have violated (there is no such duty apparent in your post and few employees would have one) they would have no grounds to sue you. "Retaliation" is one of the current buzz words that everyone likes to throw around but which few people really understand the legal application of.

 

[coyneflip]

Thanks for the advice. I will mail the claim tomorrow and update the thread as it progresses.

 

[HRZ]

Dig more carefully ....my read of MD issues is that a benefit is a wage as defined ..and is not subject to bring changed backwards, only if one pay period in advance
...read the definition of wage. At least as posted, you were granted benefit of paid leave well in advance w/o any other attached conditions....if you file suit for unpaid wage and prevail, you are entitled to 3x recovery plus attorney fees....but literature suggests you can only pick one road to pursue employer ....the attorney fee may be biggest part of issue ....at least double check ....there is no rush to pick

 

[cbg]

HRZ makes a good point about MD laws; however, it's still going to boil down to 1) whether paid bereavement leave is actually considered wages* and 2.) whether or not there is a policy that no paid leave can be taken after resignation.

*Even my state, which considers earned vacation time as wages, does not consider all forms of paid leave as wages, and I specifically include bereavement time in that.