I work remote. Today I went to look at our employee portal which lists pay/benefits/time off etc, and noticed that I had been deducted 1.5 hours of PTO last month with the label “payroll adjustment.” Reached out to our VP (small company with no HR department) to ask what this was about, as I was not informed when it happened. Apparently, this was deducted to account for lost time while my power was out due to a tree falling on a nearby power line. According to this guy, it should have been unpaid, since “it was unexpected” but instead, “PTO hours were applied.” Apparently “anytime someone is offline, even for situations out of their control,” they have to account for it as either unpaid or PTO.
I’m livid. Nowhere in company policy nor my employment agreement is this stated. If I had known they were taking my PTO, I would have taken a nap during that time instead of troubleshooting my internet and calling my cell provider to set up a hotspot. What can I do?