reply to post by Aggie Man
Legally, companies need to honor their corporate policy/employee handbook. It's like a contract. When you were hired, you are agreeing to those
policies, which they are allowed to change, but not on a whim. I'm not sure how far in advance or warning they are required to notify the employees,
but they do have to notify people of changes made, especially in regards to employee benefits.
That being said, it's perfectly legal for companies to make
reasonable vacation parameters. There are many reasons why a company may need to
do this, depending on the business they have, size of company, staffing requirements, etc.
Even so, just because you make a vacation request
within the parameters of the employee handbook, most handbooks have the caveat stated that
they are not obligated to honor that request.
In-other-words, they are allowed to approve/disapprove vacation REQUESTS. When you say you want to go on vacation during a certain date, you
technically are making a
request to go on vacation at that particular time. Generally speaking, you should be allowed to make at least 2 or 3
requests, and order them by preference. Then the company reviews the schedule, policy, business needs, and makes a determination as to which of your
vacation preferences they can honor.
Legally, the company has to approve one of your requests if they fall within the "contract" of your employee handbook.
Of course, it's poor business practice to "screw with" employee vacation request for the simple matter that it hurts employee moral, and could
affect productivity.
To answer your question, the company can legally change the vacation policy if they want to, it's just up to you whether you decide it's a "deal
breaker" concerning your decision to continue working there. If enough employees complain and threaten to leave, the company may be forced to
reconsider their vacation policy changes.