So, this might be a bit of a long one. First time posting. I am Massachusetts. I have been with this company for over 5 years.
Back in January of this year, 2022, I notified my employer that my wife and I are expecting our first born in June. I also told them that I would but taking advantage of our states recently passed PFMLA which allows men to take 12 paid weeks off to bond with newborns.
I am the only person who runs my department for my company. There is nobody else in our division prepared to step in to cover my roll. They decided to hire a temp to cover for me while I was out. The temp started in April to begin training so they would be prepared to fully cover by the time I left.
This is where I believe the retaliation begins. Around the time the temp started I was informed by HR that they would be taking away 1 of my 3 weeks of vacation time. They explained this by saying since I was taking 25% of the year off, that I wouldn't accrue said time for the year. Vacation time has always been awarded in a lump sum on the first of the year since I began 5 years ago. There are no policies or have there ever been discussions about accruing time. They also used this same excuse to tell me that I should expect a much smaller bonus this year because I won't have contributed as much. We have always received a more or less static bonus at the first of the year and I have never had any sort of performance review or indication that it was attached to performance or contribution of any sort.
Shortly after the temp was brought on, I was informed that absolutely zero overtime would be paid for. That there isn't enough work for 2 full time people while I was training my temp so they would only pay a maximum of 40 hours per week. They even went so far as to adjust my time sheet on several occasions, without notifying me, to reduce my hours to exacty 40.
We ended up being directed to the hospital early for an emergency induction of birth which resulted in my wife nearly dieing. Both she and the baby are now fully recovered and healthy, don't worry. This hospital stay lasted about a week, during which I didn't think much about making sure my FMLA stuff was in order. I informed my work I intended the week to be unpaid, and updated my paperwork with the state for the leave to begin the following week.
Fast forward 12 weeks. It has now been 13 weeks since I left work. On my first day back, I discover that my employer has applied my last week of vacation time to the 13th week of my leave. I told them this was not allowed as I did not approve it and was collecting from the state at the time. They shrugged and said well you were approved for 12 weeks, not 13 so you have to use your PTO. I didn't fight them on it.
This left me with 2.5 days of sick time remaining for the year. Not much but hey, it's something. My wife and I planned to go away for our anniversary for a long weekend. I knew I needed 2 days off work for that so hey its covered.
Then I got proper sick and had to call in for a day. We still have our plans so hey, looks like it'll just be a half day unpaid. As we approach, I put in my notice as always. Even spelling out that I know I don't have enough PTO but just expect the half day to be unpaid.
Well they didn't like that. I was told they aren't “thrilled” about me taking more time off and that they will deduct time from my next years vacation allotment. Despite my objection, telling them I do not agree to this. In writing.
My understanding of labor law is that they can't take away time like this. I am currently looking to leave the company by the end of the year after the way they've been treating me. I have left a lot of the more petty things out like my boss following me as I left on my lunch break just to see where I was going. There is a long list of stuff.
I expect that if they draw my vacation time negative then they will want to take it out of my last check to pay it back if I leave before accruing more. They haven't directly said this but they have a reputation of refusing to pay out vacation time when people leave the company. I'm not overly concerned about the half day that is all it is right now. But what if I get sick again? What if something else comes up? I don't want them to keep drawing some imaginary negative balance against me. It makes me very uncomfortable.
Do I have a case? Is there anything I can do? Or am I just complaining about something that a lot of people would feel very differently about?