Vacation Time Vs. Bereavement Time

[jwuequine98]

I am currently working for a roofing contractor in Virginia. However I gave him 2 weeks notice and my last day is in a couple days. Our employee handbook states that after 1 full year of employment the employee is eligible for 1 week paid vacation. I have worked for them for 1 year and 3 months. I have never taken a weeks vacation. I asked my employer today if I could get my week of vacation pay prior to leaving and was denied due to the fact that I had taken time off during the course of the year to attend funerals for both of my grandfathers, both of which are out of state. I am a salaried employee and am under the understanding that whether I work 30 hours or 60 hours per week I still receive the same amount of pay per week. The time off I took to attend the funerals was paid, however, is my employer allowed to take away and deny my vacation time because of it? The handbooks states nothing about personal time, sick time, etc. I feel like I have earned that vacation time and that pay.

[Pattymd]

If by salaried you mean exempt, yes, you must receive your salary each week you perform work, with some exceptions that do not appear to apply here, and it appears you did receive it. However, that does not mean the employer cannot require substitution of regular pay with vacation, which they may have done. And if there is no separate bereavement policy for paid time off, they may also have applied your vacation time to those absences.

Having said all this, Virginia law does not regulate payment of vacation (or any other benefits) by law, either during your employment or at termination. See here, specifically, Question #8:
http://www.dli.state.va.us/whatwedo/...powp2_faq.html

[jwuequine98]

Should they have notified me that they were taking away my vacation time or using my vacation time while I was gone for the funerals? Everyone else I work with has taken days off throughout the year and yet they still receive their vacation time whether they actually go on vacation or not. They just told me that since I was on salary and I had worked part of the week for that period was why I was getting paid. Not getting paid my vacation time just doesn't seem right or fair to me.

[Pattymd]

Should they have? Probably. Were they required to by law? No. It is not against the law to make exceptions to the company policies, unless such exception is a violation of law.