I was screwed out of $1200 today by my employer. I have been General Manager of the place where I work and was hired October 2019, 8 months before the business opened. I helped with all aspects of the build, pre-opening procedures, hired, and trained all of our employees, and have put my heart and soul into growing the business since day 1.
When I accepted the position in 2019, I did not receive an official offer and we never got a signed contract. We agreed on a salary plus 80 hours PTO annually, effective immediately. I got my first performance review on June 1st 2021 at which time the business had been open for a year. We decided then that my vacation time would renew each year on June 1st since we had been closed for COVID for the first few months of my employment and I didn’t need to use vacation time. So between June 2020 and June 2021, I took 2 weeks’ vacation time. Then, between June 2021 and June 2022, I took another 2 weeks’ vacation time.
I resigned from my management position a few months ago and agreed to stay on as manager until we got a new manager in place who could run the business. I wanted to transition into a non-managerial role in the business due to my family obligations outside of work, another job, and not having enough time to dedicate to running the place. My boss had been having some health issues and I hung on a lot longer than intended. Today was the official day of the transition to the new manager who was brought in from another studio. We had a staff meeting with the entire staff, during which the owner thanked me for all my hard work and dedication and going above and beyond while he sourced new management.
After the meeting, when all the other employees left, the owner called me into his office and told me that he had never agreed to 2 weeks’ vacation annually and that if we went by the employee handbook for the other employees, I was actually only entitled to 48 hours of vacation time. Therefore, he is saying I owe him for 24 hours of vacation time that has already been paid out.
Furthermore, since I completed my next year, my PTO was supposed to renew again, and he had already agreed to pay me for 24 hours of PTO for the vacation I took with my family last week. I am now being told that he is not going to pay me for that vacation time either. At $25/hour, the 48 hours that I am not being paid for is equal to $1,200, which is not a small chunk of change. I have until Wednesday to let him know how I want the 24 hours I “owe” the company taken out of my paycheck. If I want it all at once, or 8 hours per pay period for the next 3 pay periods.
Do I have any legal recourse here? I would NEVER have accepted a management position for 4 PTO days annually, and we have 2 years of history of him paying me 10 vacation days annually. I can’t afford to just leave the job immediately without something else lined up, and other than this, I have genuinely enjoyed working for the company the entire time I’ve been there. There is nothing in writing saying I was owed 80 hours annually, and the only thing he is going on is the employee handbook that was written for our other non-managerial employees. Can he just deduct pay from my payroll for hours I’ve worked and PTO I’ve rightfully earned?