bananamaama
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Oklahoma
My husband was abruptly laid off a week and a half ago by a large company in Oklahoma that is also throughout the country. They also assured him it was due to no fault of his own. The company just got a new owner, but for the past 1.5 years they were in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The $2000 bonus he was promised never happened, the company truck and jobs he was supposed to run on his own never happened, and he never got the raise they said he would get after 30 days. I think the layoff might even violate the WARN Act requiring 60 days notice for companies with 100+ employees.
The company finally got out of their bankruptcy and had a meeting before letting him that they were grateful everyone stuck by them and commended them on how loyal they all were. My husband was hired on as a plumber and ended up waiting and waiting to be able to do his own jobs for a generator company, which he had been doing when the lead installer was out, and was out often. My husband was reliable and always there. He's also very good at his job. They just downsized because of money issues it seems.
Recently, he asked for his PTO because the layoff put us in a bigger financial hardship than we were already dealing with, and really need the money (he was just hired by another company and onboarded today). The former employer responded and said they don't pay out PTO, but their handbook is contradictory. The amount is under $400, but we still need the money.
The handbook says this: "Although PTO is allocated upfront, it is earned each pay period."
"At this point, no additional PTO can be earned until previously accrued PTO is taken. A maximum of 40 hours can be carried over to the subsequent calendar year. Any remaining PTO will be lost. Unused PTO Hours will not be "paid out" at the time of termination."
"Employees who leave during the year and have used more PTO time than earned (accrued) will be charged back for unearned PTO time. PTO accruals are based on actual regular hours worked, excluding unpaid leaves of absence or overtime..."
While I understand there's no law requiring companies to provide PTO, once they offer in their own policies, they're supposed to honor it typically, particularly if the PTO is treated as wages, and in this case they were accrued and earned specifically.
There's also Oklahoma Statute 40-5-165.1(4); which seems to be able to be used as an argument that the PTO is earned wages.
The company finally got out of their bankruptcy and had a meeting before letting him that they were grateful everyone stuck by them and commended them on how loyal they all were. My husband was hired on as a plumber and ended up waiting and waiting to be able to do his own jobs for a generator company, which he had been doing when the lead installer was out, and was out often. My husband was reliable and always there. He's also very good at his job. They just downsized because of money issues it seems.
Recently, he asked for his PTO because the layoff put us in a bigger financial hardship than we were already dealing with, and really need the money (he was just hired by another company and onboarded today). The former employer responded and said they don't pay out PTO, but their handbook is contradictory. The amount is under $400, but we still need the money.
The handbook says this: "Although PTO is allocated upfront, it is earned each pay period."
"At this point, no additional PTO can be earned until previously accrued PTO is taken. A maximum of 40 hours can be carried over to the subsequent calendar year. Any remaining PTO will be lost. Unused PTO Hours will not be "paid out" at the time of termination."
"Employees who leave during the year and have used more PTO time than earned (accrued) will be charged back for unearned PTO time. PTO accruals are based on actual regular hours worked, excluding unpaid leaves of absence or overtime..."
While I understand there's no law requiring companies to provide PTO, once they offer in their own policies, they're supposed to honor it typically, particularly if the PTO is treated as wages, and in this case they were accrued and earned specifically.
There's also Oklahoma Statute 40-5-165.1(4); which seems to be able to be used as an argument that the PTO is earned wages.
