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Ohio employment law, employee's rights to recover lost vacation time

Asked about 3 years ago - Cleveland, OH

My company's employee guideline manual clearly states the policy for accruing vacation time. I have attempted to take two - one week vacations this calendar year which is consistent with the written policy. During both vacation periods, I ended up being forced by my employer to address business related issues via cell phone and also e-mail. During the most recent vacation period, I was instructed to deal with business issues that absorbed 19.5 hours of my time out of a 40 business hour vacation period. Company policy does not permit vacation time to be carried or accrued from one calendar year to the next. It appears I will now lose those 19.5 hours I was forced to work since other people will be on vacation the rest of this year. I have already been informed I cannot take any more time off this year due to other's vacations. What recourse if any do I have to recover my lost vacation time??

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MRL

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Attorney answers (1)

John Michael Drain Jr.

Reputation Level 13

Answered over 2 years ago. Divorce / Separation Lawyer in Cleveland, OH.

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In the absence of a written employment agreement that specifically covers this situation, and if you are not a member of a union that is a party to a collective bargaining agreement with management, you may not have a remedy. However, there may be a company procedure to bring this grievance to the attention of management, but that is not likely. I suppose you could bring this matter to the attention of management at the time of your next performance appraisal, but that is not a very satisfactory alternative. Under some circumstances, it is possible to complain to the Wage and Hours Division of the Department of Labor if an employee is not paid for all the time he has worked, but you are in a gray area and Wage and Hours may not be interested in pursuing this matter, especially if you are a salaried employee. In short, no written contract, no union, salaried employee, probably no remedy.

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