A couple of us tried to talk to him about urgent projects that we need to start now, but that just made it worse. Our boss talked about how bad the economy is doing and told us we'd have to tighten our belts if the company was going to survive.
None of us wants to quit; we like each other and our jobs. He's really freaking us out, though. Do we have any rights? What happens if some of us want to take work home and do it there so we're not totally behind and swamped the week after Christmas?
A. According to the Society for Human Resource Professionals hot line, most companies can close for a week at Christmas or other times throughout the year and force employees to take leave without pay without facing legal consequences.
A few loopholes exist. For example, your boss faces potential risks should any hourly or exempt employee take work projects and complete them at home during this week off.
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, employers need to pay hourly employees for work they complete, even if the employer didn't authorize the work hours. Your boss can discipline hourly employees for working "off the clock," but he can't avoid paying them.
If exempt employees work any part of a week, the FSLA requires the employer to pay them for the entire week. Thus, if despite your boss's announcement, some employees want to complete urgent projects out of concern for their customers or your company, and your boss withholds their pay, he risks a FSLA complaint. If he disciplines these employees for insubordination, he punishes individuals who had good intentions and sends the wrong message to all employees.
You raise a great question about Christmas holiday pay. If your company's personnel policies or other written documents, such as offer letters or employment agreements, promise employees holiday pay, your boss potentially needs to pay employees for that promised day or accompany the week-off announcement with an immediate written policy change voiding Christmas holiday pay. Doing either creates a risk.
According to attorney William Earnhart, "While employers can generally adjust any employee's work hours absent an employment contract guaranteeing weekly hours or compensation," your boss dances on the edge of a potential good faith and fair dealing issue by choosing Christmas week. Earnhart cites Mitford v. de Lasala, in which the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that an employer cannot terminate the employment relationship in order to avoid paying an accrued benefit, in this case, Christmas Day pay.
Although your boss might have chosen the week off at Christmas as a week during which business was slow and might even have felt some employees would appreciate time off during the busy holidays, he chose unwisely considering the emotional and financial impact on you and your co-workers at an otherwise emotionally sensitive time of year. Earnhart believes your company could face employee-retention costs outweighing the money otherwise saved.
Finally, your boss's money-saving strategy backfires if you or your co-workers exercise your ultimate right -- and find new jobs.
Lynne Curry is a local management trainer, consultant and syndicated columnist. Her advice and opinion column appears Mondays. Questions for her column may be faxed to her at 258-2157 or mailed to her c/o Anchorage Daily News, P.O. Box 149001, Anchorage 99514-9001. Her e-mail address is lynne@thegrowthcompany.net.
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