Under the laws set forth in the California Labor Code, employers are not legally required to offer their employees paid time off, whether it be vacations, personal days, or days away from the office. However, if the employer has offered this benefit from the beginning of the contract, it will have the legal obligation to comply with what has been established in it.
When your employee decides to offer paid time off, he will be able to establish the conditions that he believes are optimal for its payment, such as:
- When can an employee request paid time off?
- How long in advance should you apply?
- In what periods you can or cannot request time off
- A limit of days that can be requested
However, you will not be able to suddenly remove the benefit in retaliation since once this payment is agreed to be provided, the paid time off will have to be taken into account as part of the worker’s salary and you will even have to pay any paid time off accumulated that has not been used at the time of leaving the company and ending the employment relationship.
Suppose your employer decides to take away this benefit as part of the payment of your salary. In that case, you will be able to claim legally since, as mentioned above, even though it is not a benefit that you must legally have, as they were, for example, the days paid that you have for illnesses, if your employee promised the payment of time off in his contract, he must comply with it and pay the days that were established in it.
An employment law attorney can help you through the process of your claim and help you receive the compensation you deserve for your rights that have not been respected. At Lara Luna APC we can help. Contact us today.