Is is legal for my employer to take my choice and vacation time without permission?
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Is is legal for my employer to take my choice and vacation time without permission?
I had to leave early one day because my son was sick and my employer took my vacation time without my permission to even my hours to 40 that doesn’t seem right to me and I asked him and he told me that it was mandatory and automatic bit I’ve talked to several others that don’t have that problem.
Asked on July 21, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Maine
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
If it is the employer's policy to do this, that policy is legal. If it's not the policy, they cannot, though there is effectively nothing you can do about this if you are an hourly employee: if you left early without using PTO and you are hourly, you would not have been paid for that time, so by using your vacation time for this, you were paid--i.e. you were not injured or damaged in any way (you were paid and did not lose anything) and so do not have a cause of action.
If you are salaried, then you did lose 4 hours of vacation, since you would have been paid for a half day as a salaried employee without using vacation to cover it. In theory, you could sue your employer to get those 4 hours back of for their equivalent economic value, but it's difficult to see how that would be worthwhile to to.
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