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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    Default Pay for Vacation and Sick Time After Termination

    My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: MA. I was terminated last wednesday, and have not been paid my last check yet. I called the HR department today and was told it was being put through with the regular direct deposit at the end of this week. When I inquired about vacation time, she said that it was being calculated as it had accrued, and that since I had used 1 day of the 10 days we are given for the year, I was only eligible to recieve 16 hours of vacation time paid to me according to the accrual calculations. In addition, she went on to say that since I used 2 days of the 5 sick days we are given, that I actually owe them time and am in the negative for that accrual, so she deducted that amount from my vacation time that I was due. Equalling out to me being paid for 6 hours of vacation time. What Im confused about is, since vacation time and sick time are kept in separate banks and accrued differently, how can they deduct sick time used from my vacation time?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
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    24,521

    Default Re: Pay for Vacation/Sick Time After Termination

    Was this a voluntary or an involuntary termination? I'm asking for a reason.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    8

    Default Re: Pay for Vacation/Sick Time After Termination

    involuntary. on tuesday i had a medical emergency while at work, I told two coworkers that were in the room with me that I had to leave for the day and to please let our boss know but that I had to leave immediately, but that i would be back the following day. When I returned the following morning she told me she thought I had quit, so after I explained what happened, she told me I was terminated anyway.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Pay for Vacation/Sick Time After Termination

    OP, do you know whether you were covered under the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) at your former employer?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    8

    Default Re: Pay for Vacation/Sick Time After Termination

    involuntary. on tuesday i had a medical emergency while at work, I told two coworkers that were in the room with me that I had to leave for the day and to please let our boss know but that I had to leave immediately, but that i would be back the following day. When I returned the following morning she told me she thought I had quit, so after I explained what happened, she told me I was terminated anyway. its actually sort of a complicated situation..i do feel i was being forced out. I had been there 4 years but never participated in the very clicky office politics that went on there, just chose to keep to myself and do my job and go home. Because my boss is very good friends with 2 of my coworkers, she played favorites alot and my coworkers knew that, they purposely slacked off alot of the time because they knew they could get away with it. All the while I was constantly picked apart for every single move that I made. It was a very difficult working environment. I never had a review the whole 4 years I was there, I never complained, just simply did my job. That tuesday my boss called an informal meeting with just us front office staff, and she proceeded to berate me in sortof an indirect way, by saying "I have heard that whoever is checking in patients has been less than polite..get your act together" etc etc. I am the only person in the office who checks in patients so we all knew the comments were about me. Now, i know that none of this probably holds any weight, but I suffer from severe anxiety, and have for years, im under a doctors care and its controlled with medication, but on this day after she humiliated me in front of everyone, and after losing a close relative just the day before, I could feel my panic rising to the point where I was getting short of breath and dizzy..and as much as I tried to get my emotions back under control in the restroom, it was getting worse..thats when I had to tell my coworkers I had to leave immediately. I had a full blown anxiety attack in my car and drove to my doctors office where I spent the remainder of the day. I am a single mom and there is no way I would ever walk out on my job and my boss knew that. The next day she tried to say that I quit, then started saying she had gotten complaints about me from patients that I was "rude" , but when I asked about specifics, she couldnt tell me. She said "you probably dont realize you are being rude, but its not what you say, its HOW you say it." Then I found out today that they are denying my unemployment claim, because my employer told them I was terminated for misconduct. So there are alot of things that I am dealing with.

    sorry for that rambling message i had tried to edit my earlier post to include more details. I dont know much about FMLA, i thought it was something you had to apply for, like a short term disability..

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
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    Default Re: Pay for Vacation/Sick Time After Termination

    No, you don't have to apply for FMLA IF certain circumstances apply.

    I am in your state and I have a reason for each of these questions, all of which apply to whatever legal options you might have, okay?

    1.) What is your leave policy? Are sick and vacation time completely separate? How much of each do you get per year? How many, if any, personal days?

    2.) Did you tell your co-workers that you were leaving for medical reasons? Did they pass that word onto your boss? What is the usual procedure for leaving mid-day? For calling in?

    3.) Does your employer know about your anxiety disorder?

    4.) How much time have you missed for medical reasons over the last 12 months? How much since the beginning of the year?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Posts
    8

    Default Re: Pay for Vacation/Sick Time After Termination

    thanks so much for your response.. sick and vacation time are kept completely separate. We are given 10 days vaca, 5 days sick per year.. no personal days. The time renews every Jan 1 and on our paystubs it says how much time we have left to use. I was never told that it has to "accrue" ...as I have had other jobs where it did. I was just simply told we are given that time and can use it however we want before the end of the year, and that basically its "use it or lose it". This job is very lax with their policy as far as having any set procedure for calling in or leaving midday..I was never really told what to do..as far as leaving early, since it is a doctors office we mainly just make sure there is enough coverage, and if its a slow day, and one of us has to leave a little early we just tell each other..half the time our boss doesnt even know as she is in a different office. the few times that I have called in I have either texted my boss, or left the message with the billing supervisor as she is in the office the earliest. No one knows about my anxiety, I have had it completely under control for years, until about last summer I started having actual attacks again..but I did not tell anyone at work.
    I did not specifically tell my coworkers I was leaving for medical reasons, of course looking back I now know I shouldve..but I literally couldnt think straight or breathe and felt like I was having a heart attack. When I returned from the restroom I was very visibly in distress and crying, and all I could really say was "Im so sorry but I have to leave, please tell E___ I will be back tomorrow." I dont know if the word was immediately passed on, but I guess I didnt have a reason to think they would not have told her.
    The majority of the sick time I have taken over the past 12 months usually had to do with staying home with my son who was sick..as of now I have used 2 of the 5 sick days that we are given per year. There was one other time in the past year that I had a severe migraine and had to leave work a little early, and it was the same situation, I just asked my coworker to please tell our boss that I had to leave early.. she usually seems not to care as long as there is coverage in the office.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Pay for Vacation/Sick Time After Termination

    Under the circumstances, you simply walked off the job from your employer's point of view. They had no reason to believe and know way to know it was for medical reasons, so even if FMLA or the ADA applied (and we do not know if they do - it seems quite unlikely that FMLA, at least, applied) the employer could not be held liable for not applying them. Your termination was legal.

    However, they did at least one thing wrong under MA law. Since your termination was involuntary they should have paid you your final check, including earned but unused vacation time, on your last day of employment. It's not really clear whether you were owed any vacation time. Most if not all employers in MA have vacation accrue over the course of the year. In the absense of a policy that spells it out, it could really go either way depending on who at the MA AG's office catches the claim. MA law only requires that you be paid out what is actually accrued, and not what you would have earned over the balance of the year. Trust me, I am speaking from experience here. I've had many a conversation with them as I tried to come up with a vacation policy that would be in compliance with state law, and also satisfied a crowd of higher-ups in a state where there is no requirement that unused vacation time be paid out.

    Your recourse for both the late paycheck and the potentially unpaid vacation is to contact the state AG's office (which functions as the DOL in this state). I can't say what, if anything, you'll get but they'll investigate and see if you are owed anything further.

    Not your question but if you have not filed for unemployment yet, here are a few tips. In MA, you can only file an unemployment claim on the phone or in person. You cannot file online in this state as of yet. (You can file your weekly check-ins online but not the initial claim.) If you file by phone, you can only call on the day so designated by the last digit in your SSN, or else on Friday. You can find a list on the DUA site. However, if you live near one of the walk-in centers, you can file in person on any day of the week. It is also MUCH faster than trying to file by phone. If you go in at 8 am on a Monday you'll probably wait for three hours, but if you go in mid morning, or mid-afternoon, any day but Monday you can probably slide in and out in half an hour or less. They'll tell you that you'll have to wait 2-4 weeks to hear about your claim; most times it will be closer to two than four. From your description of what happened, you shouldn't have any trouble qualifying. You cannot claim retroactively, so if you haven't filed yet, do it asap.

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