I’m in Washington state, and realized I accrued quite a few hours regarding my part time employment. I work 23 hours a week and I’ve earned around 48 hours of paid and floating holiday hours. My contract is expiring in two months and I just noticed my hours. My employers didn’t tell me anything until I brought it up. I asked to take some time off and they told me they’d have to go to a “higher up” because I’m requesting a Friday off each week to offset my accrued hours. They weren’t going to let me take two weeks off at once so this was the best solution I could find. My reason was I’m in grad school and I have a heavy course load to take this semester. I teach kids for an after school program Monday-Friday btw and hours are tight. 4.5-5 hours a day. I have a feeling it’s not going to get approved. What are the next steps I can take if they don’t approve it? These hours were stated in the contract as “use it or lose it”, so I’m worried I’m not going to be able to use them or report them about it if they don’t approve my time off. Is there someone I can go to to get my hours in cash if they don’t want to approve it?