My company gives 10 days of vacation and 5 sick/personal days per year as part of our benifit package. Yesterday they implimented a policy that will close the office for the entire week of Thanksgiving as well as the week between Christmas and New Years. The day of Thanksgiving and the day after is normal holiday as well as Chrismas day. The policy states that the office will be closed and anyone that wants to get paid for it must use vacation days, in other words forcing us to use our vacation days. This would require us to use 7 of the 10 vacation days allowed.

For those of us who do not have enough vacation days left this year, we have two choices, we can use some of the days for next year against this year, or we are forced to take it unpaid.

Is this legal??

My company gives 10 days of vacation and 5 sick/personal days per year as part of our benifit package. Yesterday they implimented a policy that will close the office for the entire week of Thanksgiving as well as the week between Christmas and New Years. The day of Thanksgiving and the day after is normal holiday as well as Chrismas day. The policy states that the office will be closed and anyone that wants to get paid for it must use vacation days, in other words forcing us to use our vacation days. This would require us to use 7 of the 10 vacation days allowed.

For those of us who do not have enough vacation days left this year, we have two choices, we can use some of the days for next year against this year, or we are forced to take it unpaid.

Is this legal??

I believe it is, but it depends on the size and type of company.

http://www.megalaw.com/mi/mi.php

It's not nice to not pay your employees around the holidays, but it isn't illegal to close your office and not pay for people who aren't working.

I would suggest you wait it out unless you have another good job waiting for you. Enough people may skip out to a better employer and teach them how bad some of their policies can be.

Many have off between Christmas and New Years, and are paid, it's called a "Gift Week". Your employer may find it cheaper to give you that gift instead of turning over new employees.

Yes, this is legal. They are not required to provide paid vacation at all; they can set the rules as to how and when it is used.

Note: If you are exempt, you can be required to use vacation time, but you must be paid for the time, even if you have used up your vacation.

I am an exempt employee I was wondering if you could clarify that statement as I am not sure that I understand it. Thanks.

What that means, is if you miss a partial day of work, (except if the absence is intermittent FMLA), you still must be paid for the full day. However, you the employer CAN charge your PTO/vacation/sick bank. But if you don't have any time off available, either because there is a waiting period to use it, or you have used it all up, you STILL must be paid for the full day.
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_541/29CFR541.118.htm