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Can PTO Reset on Your Hire Date Instead of the Calendar Year

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  • 05-26-2016, 02:39 PM
    stert23
    Can PTO Reset on Your Hire Date Instead of the Calendar Year
    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Michigan

    Hi, I appreciate you guys reading this!

    So I started a job a year ago. My PTO just reset on my DATE of hire. Is this the norm? I have never worked somewhere where that is the policy.

    I knew my PTO did not roll over into the next year. So I used a large amount at the end of the calendar year and have since been saving it up (5 months worth, or about 35 hours). I just tried to use it and was informed that I only have 3 hours because it had just reset at my date of hire.

    This policy was never communicated with me and their policy says "year of employment."
    to me, year of employment does not mean DATE of employment. I would take it to mean calendar year, or at the very least fiscal year.
    I would also assume that it was purposely written in vague language purposely to trick employees out of their paid time off.

    Do I have any legal basis to ask for those PTO hours back?

    Here is the policy in full:
    Exhibit A.

    Paid Time Off is time off an employee can utilize and be paid. It is being provided in lieu of vacation days, sick days, personal days, or any other traditionally designated paid time off.

    Paid Time Off is earned/accrued on a per payroll basis at the rate of 3.077 hours per payroll totaling 80 hours by the end of the year of employment.
    Unused PTO does not roll over.
    Unused Paid Time Off will not be paid out upon termination of employment. PTO cannot be paid out while employed.
  • 05-26-2016, 02:46 PM
    free9man
    Re: Pto Time Reset on My Hire Date Instead of Calendar Year
    Seems pretty clear to me. I am actually working at a job that was also the first time I'd encountered this but there is nothing illegal about it.

    Does suck that it doesn't roll over and they don't pay it out on your anniversary. I at least get the pay out.
  • 05-26-2016, 06:24 PM
    cbg
    Re: Pto Time Reset on My Hire Date Instead of Calendar Year
    I'll be a little more blunt here than I was on the other board. (I quite realize that you haven't had a chance to see my other answer yet.)

    Neither Federal nor state law (in any state) cares one hoot IF you get vacation, let alone when it resets. A small handful of states, not including yours, require that anything unused be paid out on termination, and one state (not yours) requires that it accrue as you go instead of getting it as a block. NO state has any laws that require it to reset in any particular way. There is nothing at all illegal about this policy, sorry.

    There's no need for an employer to "trick" you out of any time since they have no legal obligation to offer it in the first place.
  • 05-26-2016, 07:10 PM
    Taxing Matters
    Re: Can PTO Reset on Your Hire Date Instead of the Calendar Year
    Quote:

    Quoting stert23
    View Post
    Paid Time Off is earned/accrued on a per payroll basis at the rate of 3.077 hours per payroll totaling 80 hours by the end of the year of employment.

    Actually, the way that is written means exactly what the employer did: cutting off the PTO period at the anniversary of your date of hire. “Year of employment” means just that, each year you have been employed, and that year starts with the day you were hired. If you get hired on Nov 1, then Dec 31 is not a year of employment; it is just two months of employment. Had the employer meant instead fiscal year or calendar year the policy would have said just that. You assumed it was a calendar year because that was your experience with other companies. But it is a mistake to assume that all employers do things the same way, although I see people make that very mistake all the time.
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