Re:We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its re...
by astura on Monday January 28, 2019 @10:53AM
(#19018391)
I've never actually had what can be described as an "employment contract," the only thing is I've ever signed is a paper saying my starting salary, full time status, and that I'm "at will" so employment can be terminated for any reason by either party.
Policies like this (PTO accruals, buybacks, etc.) are determined by HR policies that are unilaterally published by the company, but they aren't "guaranteed" by any means; HR policies can (and do) change at any time with no notice. So how does "reading my employment contract" protect me? They can just change the policy from "we'll buyback your unused PTO" to "you forfeit unused PTO" a week before the layoffs. I've actually seen this exact thing happen before. (end PTO buybacks then immediately enact mass layoffs)
Once I worked for a company for about 3 or 4 years during that time they dropped the 401(k) match completely (no advanced notice), dropped long term disability (maybe a week advanced notice), dropped max PTO accruals, and changed the health insurance significantly every single year, including changing the company managing the plan. Then there's always the classic "we're changing the PTO accrual schedule."
Do you people who apparently have "employment contracts" sign a new one every time your pay changes? Or benefits change? What if someone refused to sign the new one? Then they'd just get fired on the spot, so it's basically the same thing as a unilateral company directive, just with a lot of handwavings.
Policies like this (PTO accruals, buybacks, etc.) are determined by HR policies that are unilaterally published by the company, but they aren't "guaranteed" by any means; HR policies can (and do) change at any time with no notice. So how does "reading my employment contract" protect me? They can just change the policy from "we'll buyback your unused PTO" to "you forfeit unused PTO" a week before the layoffs. I've actually seen this exact thing happen before. (end PTO buybacks then immediately enact mass layoffs)
Once I worked for a company for about 3 or 4 years during that time they dropped the 401(k) match completely (no advanced notice), dropped long term disability (maybe a week advanced notice), dropped max PTO accruals, and changed the health insurance significantly every single year, including changing the company managing the plan. Then there's always the classic "we're changing the PTO accrual schedule."
Do you people who apparently have "employment contracts" sign a new one every time your pay changes? Or benefits change? What if someone refused to sign the new one? Then they'd just get fired on the spot, so it's basically the same thing as a unilateral company directive, just with a lot of handwavings.