Is there a law or regulation that prevents an employer from forcing employees to use their PTO (personel time off)?
My employer (let's call him scrooge) is forcing anyone with PTO to use it between Christmas and New Years. Some like myself only have under 20 hrs we were saving for vacations later next year.
:eek:

Unless CA is very different from most states in this regard (Michael?) no, there is no such law. An employer does not have to offer vacation or PTO at all; they get the make the rules about how and when it is used.

This is an interesting question. The DLSE Vaction FAQ has the following:


Q. Can my employer tell me when to take my vacation?

A. Yes, your employer has the right to manage its vacation pay responsibilities, and one of the ways it can do this is by controlling when vacation can be taken and the amount of vacation that may be taken at any particular time.

At first glance, it appears that this means that they can force you to take vacation. However, if you look at it, it only says when vacations can be made available to you -- not that you must take them.

The problem comes up with salaried-exempt employees. In general, PTO days can only be used when the absense is caused by the employee. In Opinion Letter 2002-05-01, the DLSE writes "that unless the exempt employee voluntarily absents him/herself for a period of a full day of more, vacation may not be used by the employer to make up the salary of the employee." I will note that a recent court decision allows for some partial day absences as well, but in any case, they would be used only when the employee decides to take them -- not when forced by the employer

The above would apply only to partial week periods. If the employer lays you off for one full week, then no salary is due and the employer could use vaction pay to pay you.

I really don't see "forced vacations" as anything different than "diciplinary suspensions." I think that the same rules would apply -- otherwise no one would ever be put on "diciplinary suspension," they would simply be "forced to take vacation."