Employee termination PTO payout and termination cancellation thereafter

An employee gave self resignation for Friday of a week, basically Friday is the last working day of that employee. Now on Friday morning, PTO payout for the employee got processed and employee got paid via direct deposit.

Then on Friday afternoon after some discussions employee got retained back. But as mentioned the PTO payout already got paid and now employee got retained back. So what happens now? Does the company get the pto payout back? i.e ask the employee to return the payout?

Or does it happen that PTO just gets reset to 0 ?

1 answer  |  asked Oct 29, 2011 11:19 PM [EST]  |  applies to California

Answers (1)

Marilynn Mika Spencer
The following comments are for information only and should not be considered legal advice. Legal advice must pertain to specific facts. No attorney-client relationship is created based on this information exchange.

Under California law, PTO is considered wages, and any accrued PTO must be paid to an employee upon termination (see below), just like other wages. In the situation you describe, the employee terminated and the employer paid the employee, like it was supposed to. If the employer then re-hires the employee, the PTO accrual would start again from zero.

Wages due on termination: If an employee quits without notice, the employer must pay the employee all accrued wages, vacation and PTO within 72 hours of the termination. If the employee gives adequate notice or the employer fires the employee, then employer must make the payment on the employee's last date of employment.
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Marilynn Mika Spencer is licensed to practice law before all of the state and federal courts in California, and can appear before administrative agencies throughout the country. 

posted by Marilynn Mika Spencer  |  Nov 25, 2011 03:04 AM [EST]

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