Force to Take Vacation w/o Pay

TN HR

Let me run this one by you guys:

Exempt Supervisor requests one week's vacation. We paid it on our regular pay date the week prior. The next Monday, she shows-up to work, saying she was "cancelling" her vacation and proceeds to work all but one day that week.

Payroll does not cut her a check this week thinking she had been on vacation last week and they had already paid her up-front. She cries and screams about having worked and the Controller issues a live check today.

GM finds out before I do, he calls me and reads me riot act. She is a less-than-average employee who NEEDS to TAKE vacation, not essentially cash-it-in.
We believe she worked the system to get cash. Two days before the vacation request she had tried to borrow from her already tapped-out 401K.

GM wants to force her to take a week of vacation unpaid. Can we do this? One thought is to essentially suspend her without pay, but we want to drive home the point that she needs to take a vacation.

PLEASE HELP ME!

Thanks,

Gene

dchr9203

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-04-04 AT 03:45PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Tell her how much you appreciate her deferring her vacation to a later date, and that as her employer you cannot in good conscious allow her to defer it any longer since she's already been compensated for it, and she will be on vacation next week, period. Do it in writing, include the date she received compensation and that no additional payroll will be processed for that week, have a witness present at your meeting and make sure the witness sees you hand her a copy of the written document. Wouldn't hurt to notify her she's no longer eligible to receive pay advances. We NEVER, EVER, advance payroll or vacation, etc. for this very reason. Your other option could be to withhold the advance from her next payroll to "credit" her vacation/leave account, notify her in writing of your action, and then give her a clear/written warning that this won't happen again and you're going to help her because she is now no longer eligible to receive any advance.

SMace

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-04-04 AT 03:49PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Quick thoughts. A week's unpaid vacation sounds like a suspension. Doesn't sound like a "suspensionable" offense to me. Sounds like you got worked over by a bumbling supervisor and the GM's pride is hurt. If she's a bad performer deal with her performance. I think the real problem is the pay system that allowed this to happen. I think the GM needs to put together a procedure so this will not happen again. Maybe the discipline should be taken out on the people involved with cutting the check.

E Wart

I don't understand the problem. You should have had payroll "transfer" the prior paid time from vacation bucket to time worked bucket. Don't pay her the week she works. Call her in and explain that she had requested vacation, was paid for it. Since she didn't take it, you are now correcting this mistake. (If you have paid her again, then correct this still and don't pay her the next week.)
I would explain that if she requested vacation she should have used it unless she had discussed with her supv. the reason why she decided not not take it (before she showed back up at work.) You had already made other arrangements to cover her work while she was gone.
Explain that your company DOES NOT pay for vacation time not used. It is a benefit to be taken when needed. However, if not taken, do not get pay. You cannot allow her to be paid and not allow everyone, which is against company policy.
I don't know if you have a take it or loose it vacation policy, but if so, make sure she understands that if she doesn't take her time off before the end of the year, she will loose it.
E Wart