Hello there,
Long time lurker, first time to post here. I need some advice so I thought this would be the place.
So I work for one of the biggest healthcare companies in my state. They own most of the hospitals, care facilities and many pharmacies. I work in one of their pharmacies but my job title really isn’t important to this story and to stay anonymous, I won’t say more on that.
Anyway, two weeks ago on April 20th, I got a call at work that an immediate family member I was very close to suddenly passed away. This family member and the majority of my family live in another state across the country. I was distraught and left work early with my bosses permission. The next day, I wasn’t in any state to return to work and was aware of a bereavement policy my work offers.
The policy states that any employee gets 3 days of paid bereavement leave for an immediate family member. These days are available immediately after hire and do not need to be taken grouped together. They can be taken separately.
So I texted my boss letting him know I would like to take a bereavement day that Friday, April 21st, and would most likely use the remaining days to fly out of state for the funeral once that was planned. He said that was fine and I didn’t return to work until the following Monday, April 24th, as I do not work weekends. Upon my return, I needed to approve my time card. My boss said to me “hey, sign off on your time card, I put in the bereavement for Friday.” I looked and it was there so I approved it, worked until Wednesday and flew out that Thursday for the funeral. So I was off Thursday and Friday, and returned to work Monday, May 1st.
I’ve worked this whole week and upon leaving yesterday afternoon, clocked out using the computer instead of the physical time clock. When it showed me my time clock, it was short on hours and I was like what the hell.
They did not put in bereavement pay for Thursday or Friday, but instead, used what little PTO I have to cover as much of those hours as possible. Confused, I looked at the prior pay period, and saw that after approving my time card, my boss removed the bereavement pay that was already there, and replaced it with a few hours of my PTO.
He never said anything to me, so now I am missing about 20 hours of pay between those two pay periods. I am absolutely pissed about this. If there was some kind of mistake and I don’t qualify for bereavement pay, which sounds incorrect, he should have told me. Also, leading me to believe I could use a benefit I am entitled to but then taking it away while I am grieving the loss of my family is beyond fucked.
This is not the first issue I have had with my boss in regards to hours and scheduling, and I am unsure of how to proceed. I want to email my boss and his boss so I have a paper trail, because I feel like this is a total violation of their own policy. I plan on applying to as many jobs as possible and leaving this one ASAP but until then, how would you guys handle this situation? Should I go to HR?
Thanks y’all