Can they deny me vacation and force me to go to an employee appreciation day?

I have requested a vacation day on a day where our company is having an employee appreciation day at a restaurant. Can they deny my vacation request to go to this function? I have earned the vacation time.

Rita Risser Chai replies:

I personally hate these types of employee appreciation days. If an employer wants to appreciate employees, I think they should give employees time off to do what they want! OK, sorry, end of rant. An employer can put limits on the use of vacation. It is not uncommon for employers to prohibit vacation during busy times of the year, before or after holidays, etc. In this situation, if they want to be jerks, it is probably legal for them to do this. Sorry.

Posted 06-19-2018

Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first.

Rita M. Risser Chai2018-06-19T18:09:06+00:00

About the Author: Rita M. Risser Chai

Rita M. Risser Chai was an attorney in California for 20 years and now is an attorney in Hawaii. She authored the Prentice Hall book, Stay Out of Court! The Manager’s Guide to Preventing Employee Lawsuits, and she developed most of the curriculum used by Fair Measures including the firm’s first website which was praised in HR Magazine. She also wrote numerous articles on employment law including one on best practice harassment prevention training published in the magazine of the American Society for Training and Development (now ATD). She taught Law and Human Resources at the University of California, Santa Cruz, for eight years, and has presented four times at the annual conventions of the Hawaii Society of Human Resource Management.

Can they deny me vacation and force me to go to an employee appreciation day?

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About the Author: Rita M. Risser Chai