Forced Vacation?

Forced Vacation

I was wondering if it鈥檚 legal for a company to shut down say for the time between Christmas and new years and to force its employees to spend vacation days for that time. Basically come January 2nd I will be back in the office and will have lost three days off of my accrued vacation days. Oh and if you don鈥檛 have any vacation days left them you lose pay.

I think it鈥檚 a crappy thing to do but I鈥檓 more interested in knowing if it鈥檚 even legal for them to do it. I live and work in Massachusetts.

It is legal - many companies force vacation during a year-end shutdown. There is no legal requirement for employers to provide any vacation time, although most do so to be competitive in the labor market. How they administer vacation time and aloow employees to use it is entirely up to the company.

It's especially irksome for employees in the Northeast since most would rather take off time during the warm summer monnths. Sorry...enjoy your holidays.....

It's legal. It happens here in Michigan.

Paid holidays are not a legal requirement, and that is a benefit.

There is no law that states that an employer has to provide paid holiday benefits.

So yes, he can not pay you at all, but he is allowing you to use vacation time to pay for it.

Keep in mind, he doesn't have to offer you vacation time either.

Of course it's legal for them to shut down for that week, and they don't have to pay you for the time since you aren't working then. If you have vacation time coming to you, then you can at least get paid for the time off.

Vacation also is a benefit, not required by law, so they can make the policies on any vacation time that they allow you.