Employer Can Dictate Timing of Vacation

Q: I work at a financial institution. My company requires that my two-week vacation time be taken all at once. Is this legal?

--A.M., Laguna Niguel

A: Yes. Although California law limits the number of consecutive days of work, it does not require an employer to grant paid vacation time. Unless there is a contractual agreement, an employer also can decide when an employee can take vacation.

--William H. Hackel III

Employment law attorney

Yes, Boss Can Open Your Mail

Q: Our company’s chief executive officer opens all mail--business letters, trade correspondence and circulars, personal mail, etc.--addressed to anyone at the office. Is this legal?

--S.B., Los Angeles

A: Yes. An employer has a legitimate interest in knowing the contents of all mail that is received by employees on the job. It is often difficult to determine merely from an envelope what correspondence is personal and what mail is business-related.

If employees do not wish their personal mail to be opened, they should receive their personal mail at home, not at work.

--James J. McDonald Jr.

Attorney, Fisher & Phillips

Labor law instructor, UC Irvine

Slander Is Illegal

Q: I worked for a marketing company for almost 1 1/2 years in both management and as a research analyst catering to high-tech clients. I was the object of untruthful, malicious, behind-the-back slander by another supervisor. I guess he felt threatened by my college education and expertise in the high-tech field, since he had no education and came from the used-car sales field.

Fellow employees would tell me that on my sick days this supervisor would have floor meetings and publicly blame me for things that were not my responsibility or could be attributable directly to his incompetence.

I was fired one day in December while I was out sick because, during a client-management telephone conference, I was blamed by company management for carrying out directions that the client found didn’t meet their needs.

Is there recourse against this supervisor or the company? Many employees have told me they would testify about the things that occurred behind my back. My work record was perfect. I never received a warning for poor work or any complaint to my face for any work habit or quality.

--S.D., Woodland Hills

A: If you were humiliated or your performance otherwise suffered because of these untruthful statements, you could have a legal claim against your co-worker, since slander is illegal. What you could obtain from that claim would have to be determined.

You should be able to show that the lies resulted, at least in part, in your termination. However, the company would probably contend that there was no connection between the untruthful statements and its claim that you were not meeting the needs of your client.

There is no legal requirement that your employer warn you before termination. Since you only worked at the company 1 1/2 years, you probably are classified as an “at-will” employee who could be terminated with or without a good reason.

Evaluate your employee handbook to determine if the employer has a progressive discipline system. Certainly, they need to comply with any promises to give warnings or to have sufficient cause prior to termination.

--Don D. Sessions

Employee rights attorney

Mission Viejo

Careful Screening

Q: I am an office manager. Because of moderate turnover in my office, I interview a lot of applicants.

I like to believe that people answer questions truthfully about previous employment, but since my office is a gateway to other departments in the firm, I feel a special obligation to investigate as completely as I can the background of potential employees. I have contacted previous employers, but I find that most people give a fairly neutral to highly positive recommendation.

Since I’m hearing no negative comments about potential employees who seem shaky, at least on first impression, should I assume that anything but a wonderful recommendation means the applicant is a “loser?”

--B.D., Downey.

A: Fearing litigation, many employers are reluctant to give negative information about former employees, choosing instead to give only employment dates and job titles.

Unfortunately, other employers may give positive recommendations for former workers, even though the work of those former employees may have been unsatisfactory. It is important to note that a recent landmark court case held a former employer liable for giving a positive recommendation for an ex-worker who was known to be unstable and potentially dangerous. Yet, it seems that many employers, such as the ones you are encountering, are still giving positive evaluations for ex-employees who performed poorly.

The bottom line is that it is often a very difficult task to get accurate information from former employers.

The answer to your dilemma is to do as thorough a job as possible screening applicants, gathering information that you have control over and putting less weight on recommendations from former employers. In other words, you may want to explore options such as employment tests, as well as ensuring that you are doing a good job of evaluating resumes and applications.

Finally, develop interview questions and procedures that will help elicit revealing information from applicants and provide some indication of their past work performance.

--Ron Riggio, director

Kravis Leadership Institute

Claremont McKenna College