Unequal Benefits based on Employee Work Schedule

[megkli]

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

Should all employees receive the same fringe benefits (specifically, paid holidays) in a calendar year, whether or not the named holiday falls on an employee's workday?

For example, the employees who typically work Monday through Friday at a workplace received a paid holiday for Labor Day. The employees who typically work Tuesday through Saturday at the same workplace received no benefit for that named holiday.

The CFR (29 CFR 4.174) states that "an employee who performs any work during the workweek in which a named holiday occurs is entitled to the holiday benefit, regardless of whether the named holiday falls ...on another day during the workweek on which the employee is not normally scheduled to work..." Does this apply to any agency?

 

[cbg]

Are you a Federal employee? If not, the link you provided does not apply to you.

For employees of private employers, it is quite legal, and quite common, for only employees who are scheduled to work on the day a holiday falls, to receive a benefit for that holiday. The purpose of paid holidays is to keep an employee whole when the company is closed - not to provide a windfall to those employees who were not scheduled to work.

 

[Stephen1]

I have a slight disagreement with cbg but it doesn't greatly change his comment.
29 CFR 4 does not appear to apply to Federal employees but to employees of certain companies contracted to the Federal government. Exactly which contractors is unclear to me. There is another section of law and regulations that lays out similar standards for Federal employees.

So the questions to OP are:
1. (as cbg asked) are you a Federal employee, or
2. are you an employee of a company contracted to the Federal government, or
3. is there some other reason why you believe this requirement may apply to you?

cbg already discussed how this applies to most private employers.

 

[LdiJ]

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

Should all employees receive the same fringe benefits (specifically, paid holidays) in a calendar year, whether or not the named holiday falls on an employee's workday?

For example, the employees who typically work Monday through Friday at a workplace received a paid holiday for Labor Day. The employees who typically work Tuesday through Saturday at the same workplace received no benefit for that named holiday.

The CFR (29 CFR 4.174) states that "an employee who performs any work during the workweek in which a named holiday occurs is entitled to the holiday benefit, regardless of whether the named holiday falls ...on another day during the workweek on which the employee is not normally scheduled to work..." Does this apply to any agency?

I was in a similar situation for several years. I worked for a professional office that during the off season was only open Mon - Thurs and everybody therefore got the same holidays. When I came on board it was decided that during the off season I would work Tues-Sat so that the office would be open six days a week. Therefore I never got any of the Monday holidays. I found that to be kind of a minor irritation but it was what it was. Some years later my boss decided that there was no point in the office being open at all on holiday weekends, because we had so little business on holiday weekends, that it wasn't worth it. So, now I get those Saturdays off while everyone else gets Monday.

Its just the nature of the way things are.

 

[cbg]

I will also point out that the primary law covering wages in the US is the FLSA, which clearly states that no pay is due to any non-exempt employee (I am assuming that the OP is non-exempt) for time they did not work. Ever. A few states have modified that with regards to employees performing their civic duties (jury duty, voting) but none have modified it to require an employee to be paid for holidays.