TLDR: New boss won't give my mom 6 weeks off and claims its against company policy, even though previous managers allowed it. She won't quit, is there anything she can do short of not taking the vacation?
My mom has been working at Tj Maxx for over 5 years now. Last month marked the start of all new management. One manager in particular has an obsession with fixing the store and its policies because the old managers were supposedly to 'loose'.
Previously she worked a set schedule every week- this new manager schedules her with different start and end times and claims that the old managers were just doing her a favor.
Next this fucker tries to force my mom to become a coordinator, mind you, she basically already does all the work of the coordinator, but she does not want to work weekends so she said no. Fun fact, coordinators get paid just 1 extra dollar to basically do all the duties of a manager, minus pay roll.
Now this is what has me angry. My mom has always taken 6 weeks off during the summer, some years even more, and management has never given her trouble about it until now. This new manager says if she doesn't work at least one day a month, she is considered terminated from the system. He told her to file for leave of absence. It's unlikely that would be approved, and the other option would be to quit.
My mom doesn't want to quit because she won't get paid the same if she comes back. Mind you, she's barely making anything over minimum wage since she started working when it was lower and all her raises have been in 20-50 cent increases. I've tried to convince her to quit, but she doesn't want to.
It really frustrates and upsets me that my mother is being forced to choose between being paid minimum wage to be a slave or taking a vacation. Has anyone been in a similar situation and had a solution that wasn't quitting? I can't convince my mother to quit, but I feel like management is treating her unfairly when she has long been one of their best employees.