laws on federal holidays

[tblair]

question,if you work on a federal holiday are you suppose to get paid for that holiday. for an example with my employment we are usually closed,but this year they decided to open on all holidays,but stated that they where not going to pay any holiday pay,can they do this? and if you are a commission
employee do you have to work on federal holidays.

[LConnell]

If you work on a holiday, you must receive your usual pay, whether that is a slary, an hourly rate or commissions (as may be earned). There is no obligation on the part of your employer to provide additional pay or to make up for a lack of commissionable business.

[tblair]

question,if there is an employee handbook and in that handbook it states all the paid and closing holidays can the employer out of the blue changed the the handbook without the employee reading and signing a new handbook.

[LConnell]

If you were in California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii, probably not, due to court decisions here. However, in Tennessee, they probably can, unless there is some sort of statement saying that they won't. Most handbooks today, however, say something such as the company can change policies.

[Luttrell]

Is there a law in TN that states that if an employee does not work both the day before and the day after a holiday that the employer does not have to give them holiday pay? Also, if this is the case and an employee did not work the day before because he was injured on his own time not work related and had a doctor's note stating he could not work on Mon or Tues and we were closed on Wed for a Federal holiday. The employer is saying that this employee was not entitled to holiday pay. Is this true?
Luttrell

[ElleMD]

Unless you are a federal government employer you do not have to offer the holidays paid. If the employer does, they may set the rules surrounding it. A policy that states the employee must be actively at work the day before and the day after the holiday in order to get paid for it is not only legal, but common.

If that is the policy and this employee was off for whatever reason Monday and Tuesday, they would not be owed holiday pay for Wednesday.

[cbg]

I would have preferred that you open your own thread rather than re-open a 2 year old one.

However, to answer your question, there is no law that a non-exempt employee has to be paid for a holiday, ever. Contrary to what most people evidently belief, the law does NOT require an employer to offer so-called "Federal holidays", either paid or unpaid.

Although no law in TN, or any other state, specifically gives an employer permission to withhold holiday pay if an employee does not work the day before and after the holiday, there is also no law that prohibits the practice. It is a legal, and common, practice in all 50 states.

The fact that the employee was injured does not require the employer to provide him with holiday pay; neither does the doctor's note. If he is not eligible for holiday pay under the company policies, nothing in the law is going to force the employer to pay him for it since paid holidays are not required in the first place.

Everything above presumes that he is a non-exempt employee. If he is exempt, that changes things.