My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: CA
Hello,
My question is regarding whether or not it is legal for the company to change its sick leave and vacation policy after beginning of employment. and does by doing that I (as an employee) can legally resign under the same terms as if I've been fired (Worsening conditions)?
To make my question clearer here are a few details:
- I joined the company a few months ago, and received a signing bonus. according to the contract I have to give the bonus amount back in case I resign in less than 12 months since accepting the offer.
- Regarding sick leave and vacation policy - the contract does not mention the policy specifically. The only paragraph that may indicate anything about it is as follows:
- I'm not clear on whether the definition of "benefits plan" includes sick leave and vacation policy or is it just the health\vision\dental insurance, 401K, etc...?"As a Company employee, you will also be eligible to participate in the employee benefits plan, in
accordance with the terms of such plans, maintained by the Company from time to time of
general applicability to other employees of the Company, subject to any restrictions imposed by
applicable law. You should note that the Company reserves the right to cancel or change the
benefit plans and programs it offers to its employees at any time. The Company is authorized to
withhold, or cause to be withheld, from any payment or benefit under this offer the full amount
of any applicable taxes and any other customary or required deductions. The Company also
reserves its right to modify job titles and salaries from time to time as it deems necessary and in
its sole discretion."
- before accepting the offer, I inquired HR to understand the policy, here is the answer I received by email:
- Now to the interesting part - after a few months of working for that company , the company decided to issue a new policy (for all employees), the explanation to that step is the following:"...we offer a flexible work environment. For this reason we do not have a vacation policy or a set number of vacation days per year. This means we do not track any time off. This also means employees do not accrue any paid time off or vacation"
- Vacation policy did not change - only tracking method was added. but the interesting part is the sick leave policy:"Effective January 1, 2015, we are required by Law to provide Sick Leave in various states. We are required to offer and track this leave separately from any other type of leaves. In addition, we will need to track time off for all of our employees by categories due to various legal requirements and reporting purposes. In order to comply with legal requirements we have implemented the attached Leave policies effective January 1, 2015 and all US Employees are required to comply with these policies."
- This adds a limitation that did not exist before. Is that legal? Does that allow me to resign under the claim of "Worsening conditions" (and keep the bonus) ?"Employees accrue sick leave as follows:
• All regular full-time, part-time, or temporary employees working 30 days in a twelve month period,
accrue sick leave from the date of hire at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked.
• Any unused accrued paid sick leave will carry over to the next year.
• Sick leave accrual is capped at a maximum of 48 hours (six days).
"
Your help is much appreciated, Thanks!

