I work for a company here in Virginia that has some very interesting "laws". It's very hard to explain but I am going to do my best. The company has a 180 hour unplanned pto time that they are allowing us to use every year per person. The 180 hours does not include your personal time. They posted the other day that if anyone has over 180 hours of unplanned pto time that the hours that you have missed will come out of your paycheck meaning that they will take your pay away from you. Are they allowed to do that? I didn't think a company could take away your hours. Everyone in the building will be over there 180 hours because the plant will be shut down for a couple of weeks due to slow season/(Holiday Season). Are they allowed to take your pay away when you company is shut down? If we go over the 180 hour unplanned pto, due to the company closeing they will dock our paychecks, the hours that we are over by. I wanna know is it legal for the company to dock our pay due to the company closeing. It's not our fault that they are shuting down, we wanna work but we have no choice. If someone could please answer these's questions it would be greatly appricated. If I didn't explain it well enough please let me know and I will try to go into more details......

Thank You!


Example: The plant will be closed down for a total of 4 weeks. If everyone misses the whole month it will be 240 hours unplanned pto. The company is allowing us 180 hours of pto time due to the closeing of the company for the slow/holiday season. Everyone in the plant will be over 60 hours of unplanned pto. Is it legal to dock our pay even though we are not there working due to the company closeing.....

I'm not sure I understand your question about the "bucket."

However as to the time closed down, no, they do not have to pay you. You must be paid for time worked. If you dont work, you do not have to be paid.
Sorry.

This is sounding like maybe a PTO plan?

Virginia law does not prohibit "use-it-or-lose-it" plans. So, if the policy is that once the balance exceeds 180 hours, you don't get any more, that is perfectly legal.

Is that the situation? If not, please clarify.

Even in states that do prohibit use it or lose it plans, it is still permissible to cap the amount of hours that an employee can hold and not permit any more to be earned after the cap is reached. That's not losing time; that's not earning it.