California Employment Law: Rollover Vacation Time & Resignation
Just resigned from my job to take up another position elsewhere. Left on immaculate terms, no bridges burned. Unfortunately, for all things HR, I am at the mercy of our bureacratic goliath of a headquarters back East who barely knows my office exists, let alone CA employment law.
I know CA law states that employees are allowed to roll over unused vacation time (ie, employers are not allowed to take it away). I rolled over 10 days from last year, used 3, and have 7 remaining in my roll-over bank. I had assumed my employer would pay me for these in my final paycheck along with this year’s accrued vacation time because they were 100% earned and legally protected for me to use this year, but my employer states that their policy is not to pay for the rollover days, and therefore I forfeited them as a loss upon my notice of resignation.
However, they also said they are just following their corporate (NY-based) policy on this matter. I do not know what CA laws states with regard to this issue, and what my rights are. It may be menial, but it’s still a week and a half’s pay that I feel I am entitled to. Does anyone know the law?
Answer: I lived and worked in CA, but my employer was based in FL with the company headquarters being in IL. All FL employees had to use their vacation up by the end of the year. There were no rollovers. However, because I was a CA resident, I was able to rollover some horrendously high amount like 176 hours. Don’t quote me on that. I don’t remember, but it was a lot. And yes, they have to pay you for ALL of it because it was already earned. They cannot take away earned vacation time or earned PTO.
