Accrued Vacation

[drwalker909]

What is the name of your state?I work in California at a very large national company. As an employee I was given one weeks paid vacation during my first year of employment. I took that vacation at the start of my 8th month of employment. The company pays your vacation time each year on your anniversary date. However I terminated my employment (with proper prior notice) during my 10th month. When I received my last check none of my vacation time was paid. They stated that I had to complete the full year to be entitled. Can they do this?

 

[pattytx]

Are you saying that the vacation time you took in month 8 was unpaid?

If so, then that policy to not pay you your earned vacation (which would be about 33 hours or so for 10 months of employment) could be considered a subterfuge that the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement would not accept as a valid policy. See this page, the first question:
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_vacation.htm

What this basically says is that it is perfectly acceptable to have a policy that does not provide for earning vacation time during some type of introductory or probationary period. However, if the policy is that, for example, after working one year, you have one week of vacation you can take (in year two), then the state would consider that you earned that vacation throughout the period of time that you worked, and therefore are due the earned (but untaken) vacation pay at termination.

If I have misunderstood your situation, please clarify.