Can an employer go back and pro-rate PTO for entire year after I change my FTE?
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Can an employer go back and pro-rate PTO for entire year after I change my FTE?
My employment policy states that I get 208 hours PTO every year and the full amount is given on my employment anniversary date. I worked as a full-time employer FTE 40 hrs/week for 6 months, then reduced my hours to 75 FTE 30 hours/week 1 month before I resigned. Of the 208 hours I was granted on my anniversary, I used 171 hours prior to cutting down to 75 FTE. I received my
last paycheck and my employer retroactively re-calculated my PTO for the entire year based on 75 FTE. As a result, they say that I
Asked on March 13, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Texas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
You most likely do not have grounds for legal recourse: even when the time is (typically for simplicity's sake, as well as to increase employee vacation planning flexibility) given on a single date, implicit in that is that you will still earn it by working the requisite length of time or number of hours. If you use more PTO than you earned prior to, for example, being terminated or resigning, it is well-settled that your employer can recapture the extra, unearned paid time from you--including by suing, if necessary. The same principal would apply here: you may have been assigned the hours on the employment anniversary date, but still had to work enough to earn them; if you did not, the employer may retroactively adjust them to what you did earn or qualify for; and if you overused time, can seek to recapture it.
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
You most likely do not have grounds for legal recourse: even when the time is (typically for simplicity's sake, as well as to increase employee vacation planning flexibility) given on a single date, implicit in that is that you will still earn it by working the requisite length of time or number of hours. If you use more PTO than you earned prior to, for example, being terminated or resigning, it is well-settled that your employer can recapture the extra, unearned paid time from you--including by suing, if necessary. The same principal would apply here: you may have been assigned the hours on the employment anniversary date, but still had to work enough to earn them; if you did not, the employer may retroactively adjust them to what you did earn or qualify for; and if you overused time, can seek to recapture it.
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