“I have issues with employees who call in sick the day before a holiday or want to work on a holiday so they can take another day off. What are the rules?”
Your HR Survival Tip
Holidays are always of interest to employees because it often means a day off. However, there are a lot of little issues that arise, particularly at this time of year.
No law requires you to pay employees for a holiday, even if you close for that holiday. If an employee works on a holiday, they are only legally entitled to their usual hourly rate for time worked.
Given the language of all the various paid sick leave policies, you can no longer require an employee to work the day before and day after a paid holiday. This would be viewed as punishment for taking a sick day and it’s prohibited. What you can have is a policy stating they must work the day before/after a holiday unless they have a pre-approved or excused absence.
Another request we often see is an exchange of one of your holidays for a different religious holiday of the employee’s choice. You do want to allow employees to celebrate their own religious holidays… but you are not obligated to pay for those days off.
Most employees can’t be very productive when nearly every other business is closed. Stick to the days you’ve chosen to close your business. If an employee would like another day off, ask them to request an unpaid day off for the religious day(s) of their choice. Then try to accommodate them if at all possible.
Another part of the policy you might want to review is the qualification for a paid holiday. It’s okay to have distinct groups with different eligibility, such as office staff gets paid holidays vs. field employees getting an unpaid day off, etc. But, with Thanksgiving here and more holidays coming up, look at what your policy says about timing. Do you have a 90-day eligibility period before an employee can have a paid holiday? If you don’t address it, they may think there are several paid holidays coming their way.
Like so many other topics, what happens on holidays needs to be in writing so everyone is clear. Keep the holidays in your Employee Handbook generic (listed but without the actual dates) and the policy easy to understand. Send a memo out now providing the actual dates of holidays you are observing next year. Use both the policy and memo to remind everyone of eligibility. This is a great time of year so make it even better with a well-written policy.
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