Employer took away our vacation hours

[Fredward Mango]

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

I work for a national company in Georgia. Last year it was announced they would be closing my office this coming June. Questions were brought up about the amount of vacation time we would have available in 2010. It was explained that we would have a full year, but that vacation time is accrued. If we went over what was accrued come June, the overage would be deducted from our last check.

On Feb 2, we received an email announcing that since our office would be closing in June, that they removed 1/2 of our available vacation time. Since a full year's worth of vacation was given to us in January, several people had already scheduled their full year's worth. Those people are being allowed to keep that scheduled time off (it is unclear whether it will be paid or unpaid so far). The rest of us are not allowed to schedule any time off other than what will be accrued by June.

Obviously they should have thought about this and made their decision before giving us a full year's vacation in January. I feel the way this situation is being handled is very unfair.

Is it legal for our company to give us vacation time and then later take it back?
Is it legal for our company to allow some people to have additional time off (paid or unpaid) and not allow the rest of us?
Do we have any protection in this matter?

 

[Beth3]

And your question is?

 

[mlane58]

Sorry to hear that, but it wasn't illegal.

 

[FlyingRon]

First off, as pointed out, it's not illegal.

Second, it's not even improper in most cases. While many companies (mine included), allow employees to start using their full years allocation of leave starting on January 1, it only accrues as each time period goes by. If you take two weeks in January, you're going to be in arrears and that will have to be paid back if you quit or are fired before you've "earned it."

 

[Fredward Mango]

I understand the basics of how accrual works.

Let me just make sure it's clear what happened. In January, my office received their entire years vacation to schedule. It was on the books, we could log in, view it, schedule it, whatever. For most of us, it was 3 weeks of time. Several people scheduled their entire 3 weeks. In February we received an email stating they decided to remove 1/2 of the time. Now our balances showed 1 1/2 weeks. However the people that scheduled their full 3 weeks are being allowed to keep it (even though they are also being laid off in June), while the rest of us now only have 1 1/2 weeks... there's nothing wrong with that?

 

[Beth3]

It's very unfair but it's legal.