Say a friend I know had an issue on his offer letter that no one caught, including him, his boss or upper management. Say he recently found out about this mistake and as a result he gets twice the amount of vacation time than standard company policy. This amount of vacation puts him between 16 years of experience with the company and VP. He has contacted his boss and HR, his boss says check with HR and HR says what he sees is correct. He has copies of e-mails stating this. Can he be docked pay/pay back, etc… if he takes all of said vacation time and then for some reason is no longer employed with said company?
I feel like an offer letter is a starting point. Did he sign a contract or anything?
I would say he covered his bases in checking with his boss and HR.
Vacation is something that is typically employed in offers where they can’t increase the base pay, so they offer a lot of vacation as an incentive to take the job instead.
if HR said it was correct have them sign it… and run with it…
If they both have copies of the signed offer letter (by both parties) it isn’t really going to matter.
If that is the offer they made then too bad so sad.
Pretty interesting. I believe an offer letter is a binding document once you agree to employment. However, most non-union jobs are non-contract at will employment so there is nothing that says the company can’t go, “Well, you no longer get this much time, you can either except that or leave”.
Your buddy would really need to get the opinion of a labor lawyer in what ever state he lives in.
Like mentioned above, just because “company policy” says you only get X weeks of vacation when you start, doesn’t mean all that much. Well, it means you suck at negotiating if you don’t get more I suppose.
They could obviously adjust his vaca down though, but the past is the past.
The other question is how much does he want to put his job at risk?
He knows it’s a typo and they know it’s a typo. It’s not like he negotiated the extra time in good faith or earned it through years of service. Even if he finds he’s 100% covered legally is it worth pissing off HR or management? Let’s face it if you want to fire someone especially in this economy it isn’t hard to find reasons.
I would say that the offer stands to a point. If HR says it is ok, then run with it until someone says something different.
If two months from now someone says hey you’re only supposed to have xx days accept that or leave, then he’ll have to deal with that.
I highly doubt a company can dock you pay for time off they allow you to take, even if it was a mistake. I wouldn’t even say the email has to be signed, it is proof that the subject was brought to that party’s attention.
There are copies of the signed offer letter (held by boss, HR, office management and himself. TX is a work at will state. Copies of all emails have been printed and saved to .pdf. The original offer was ~$500 less than what was requested. But in tern he accrues 8 more vacation day at 28 more sick hours a year then the average employee with similar experience.
If its in tern it was put in to off set the $500 from H&R or management upon agreement and both parties signed it, it should be legit.
from an ethics stand point if it was a mistake he should just not use the time … ethically speaking
legally speaking he covered his bases and is allowed that vacation time as stated