“Is it fair to deny my vacation request due to recent maternity leave? #maternityleave #vacationrequest #NYworker
Hi everyone! I recently returned to work after maternity leave and requested 5 days off in July to visit my grandparents with my baby. However, my request was denied because I just came back from maternity leave. Is it right for my employer to refuse me time off for this reason? I really want my grandparents to meet my baby, but I’m unsure of my rights in this situation.
– Had a baby in November
– Out on leave until March 25th
– Requested 5 days off in July
– Denied due to recent maternity leave
– Accrued enough hours for vacation
– Uncertain about employer’s decision
Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated before I approach HR again. Thank you all in advance!”
Yes. PTO isn’t protected.
Ugh. It’s legal, but mean. Perhaps explain your reasoning to your manager.
Also do you have some flexibility you could discuss with your manager? Is this a bad time for the business and maybe a week later would be better?
OP, are you in or working in NYC versus just NY state? There are different labor laws in the city.
I’m going to take a different approach having worked with NY employees the last ten years. OP was just denied a benefit due to her parental and likely (former?) disability status on short term disability and FMLA (if you didn’t take either, let me know). She wouldn’t have been denied if she didn’t take legally protected leave in NY – so flip it, and say a man or childless (or childfree) person took 3 weeks vacation and asked for a week in the summer, and it was approved, and this looks like discrimination and retaliation. We can assume disparate impact at the best case scenario. We can also assume your manager doesn’t understand any of this. I assume nothing is written in your handbook banning taking PTO post returning from leave?
What you can do is write to HR and say “my manager declined my well in advance PTO request of dates (insert dates) due to taking maternity leave. I don’t believe this fits into any policy and it feels like I’ve been targeted for taking parental leave. Can you please clarify if I am allowed to use my PTO, which is a part of my compensation package?”
I think a quick call or consult with the NY DoL, NYC Human Rights Council, or an employment attorney (may cost you $100-300 if you go the attorney route unless your partner has an EAP with free legal services [your company’s EAP will not hand out an attorney if it’s related to your dispute with your employer] to confirm would be worth it because I bet your company has a pattern of this. I believe it may be allowed if there’s a policy, but it’s unlikely there’s a policy and for that far in advance (I’ve seen things like “please minimize PTO requests the first 30 days in returning from leave if possible.”)
ETA: for those downvoting me, I’ve had to call NYC Human Rights Council on something very similar before (in the last year) and their guidance was to verify it’s not the policy (unlikely to be with it being so far out) since it would be discrimination and to confirm with HR. I don’t comment on things I don’t have experience with.
Edited: typeo
Are they in their right? Legally sure…. but honestly hell no they’re not.
Schedule a TV for the day before you want to go and complain of really anything (respiratory works best) and get a dr note that will take you out for 5 days… fuck em. Your PTO is accrued and pay off your benefits package and yours to use as you need it. So use it.
As others have mentioned PTO isn’t protected.
Discrimination is questionable for sure but to me it comes across more as retaliation for taking your leave which is definitely a concern..
If you did not get this in writing I suggest a follow-up email something to the effect of “as discussed you denied my PTO in July stating that it is too soon after my recent disability and paid family leave. Please let me know how long post leave must an employee be back to use their accrued time, how and when has this been communicated to employees, and/or direct me to the policy that supports this decision.”
This is commonly done for STD/LTD and legal. It comes off as a scare tactic to not use the benefits that you have to me.
Yeah, and it’s fair. A lot of companies won’t let you request days that you haven’t accrued. You don’t have 5 days accrued and will only have 4 days accrued by the time you take the days off. You had 4 months to take your baby to see your grandparents.
Go to your company employee handbook and read the rules. Most companies have a clause in there that when you request PTO early enough it can’t be denied.
I would say so depending on their policies and how many people can be out at a time. Remember, someone had to cover shirk you were gone and it could be someone was denied time off because you were out.
Yes they’re in your right to deny you for any unprotected reason, they can’t take away the vacation time, but yes you can be denied the time off.