Company I've worked for for nearly 21 years was bought in 2003, new owner continued both hourly and salary seniority from prior owners, although he changed vacation accrual from anniversary of hire to Jan 1 for those of us in salary. Handbook DOES say that we are entitled to all unused vacation if we give 2 weeks notice.
Owner proceeded to spend heavily, and we entered first Involuntary Ch11, then switched it to voluntary. Minimal effort was made to improve situation (owner bought original artwork at time of purchase, and pieces started disappearing about the time Ch11 started!)
Several of us have 4 and 5 weeks of vacation accrued as of 1/1/06 and are trying to help shut the place down, but it looks like we won't be able to take all the vacation before they close the doors on us. Whether or not owner has the funds, is he still technically liable in MI for our unused vacation due to the handbook policy?
If so, then I think that means I can ask IRS if the lost vacation time can be deducted next year as a bad debt if we can't recover it.

You'll have to ask a local attorney who can read the handbook in its entirely, plus any other documentation there may be. There are some limits to what a message board can help with and this is one of them.

Yeah, I kinda suspected that... I was just trying to see if I was totally wasting my time on the concept.