In our company handbook, which everyone is given and signs before they come to work for us, the vacation policy reads and this is directly from the book.

As a full time hourly core employee of (company name), LLC you are eligible for an annual vacation as follows:
[UYears of employment [U] [U]Amount earned/Maximum accural[U]
1st through 4th 5 working days
5th thourgh 11th 10 working days
12th through 17th 15 working days
18th and more 20 working days

1. Vacation accural will stop when employees total vacation hours reach the maximum accural as indicated above. In situations where vacation is not approved during certain months(ie spring season), employees are encouraged to plan accordingly to avoid reaching the maximum accurual of vacation time.


Last year they had a few situations where they didnt let people take their vacations when they wanted to because of various reasons, but then when they asked for their vacations later on, they were told that they no longer had their vacations because they never took them.

Now for the question.
We were just given a list of when employees can and can not take their vacations. The list is very odd to us here. (our HR is at headquarters in Oregon) People that have been here for a year do not have any vacation until there 2 year mark. And a lot of people according to the list will need to take their vacation in March-June which is our busy season. but they will be denied. Can the company take away the vacation and give them nothing?? and do those who have been here for over a year get anything at all??

Use it or lose it policies are illegal. If they just prevent you from accruing more vacation time, that is acceptable.

Is there anyone that we can call or talk to about this situation, because a lot of people will be affected here, and their vacations will be taken away and not paid for anything. I dont mean to sound like Im stero-typing, but there are a lot of uneducated farm workers here, and they do not know the rights that they have. I would like to help protect them from the corupt owners who want to take advantage of them.

Has the new policy been implemented and distributed yet? Until it is, there is really no one to "talk to". If you want to represent the California employees with HR/Management, you can show them the information linked to here (don't expect them to be happy with you, however):
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_Vacation.htm

Note that use-it-or-lose-it policies are NOT prohibited for Oregon workers.

There are a lot of differences between here and Oregon, but I dont think they know all of the differences. Thanks for the advice. If you have read any of my other posts, you know that they are not happy with me anyways.

That part of the EDD website was exactly what I needed to prove my case. Many people have already had the vacation that they have earned taken away, and I just want to make sure that they are not treated unfairly. Every employee here is legal, and I think that they should not be treated like they are less of a person because they may not be familiar with all the laws. I think there should be more programs to educate LEGAL migrant workers of their rights (key word legal, I dont think illegal aliens should be able to get anything from our gov't even though they do)