PTO not in the budget for remainder of year

[galaxygirl17, BSN, RN]

My manager informed us recently that we cannot use our PTO for the rest of the year due to a budget issue. Is this a common policy / problem?

[Lurkndmurk, ADN, RN]

Not at my work place, we do have times where we cant use PTO because theres not enough staff OR too many people are using PTO at once. This year, just during the one week after xmas, no PTO gets approved because the direct supervisor is taking that week off. But thats just for one week & doesnt effect me...

My last job wouldnt even consider PTO for the holidays because they cant make it 'fair' to everyone, so they just said NO TIME OFF for the week before, of & after thanksgiving + xmas

[galaxygirl17, BSN, RN]

This is in addition to the yearly blackout period from mid-December to mid-January

[yournurse]

Some facilities do not allow vacation time from Thanksgiving to New Year. It’s just policy

[Nunya, BSN]

Hmmm, I would seriously check with a labor lawyer to see if that's legal...

[galaxygirl17, BSN, RN]

That’s not our policy

[beekee]

No, not normal. I’d double check to see if you have a “use it or lose it” policy. Some places require you to use some or all of your PTO by the end of the year. If you don’t, you lose the PTO. If your employer has such a policy, request the time off and let them deny it. That way, you may have an argument for not losing it.

[harvestmoon, RN]

WE had a huge software change and a month that no one was able to take time off unless you called in sick.

[galaxygirl17, BSN, RN]

We have a use it or lose it for over 160 hrs. And we also had a major software change where we couldn’t use PTO. This new period of time falls between that and the holiday blackout period

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

6 hours ago, yournurse said:

Some facilities do not allow vacation time from Thanksgiving to New Year. It’s just policy

Everywhere that I've ever worked

[MunoRN, RN]

PTO is part of your agreed upon compensation, so unless it's explicitly stated that the employer can rescind your banked PTO, the employer is failing to provide agree upon compensation, which isn't legal.

[galaxygirl17, BSN, RN]

Thank you, this is what I was wondering about. I have reached out to HR and they haven’t gotten back to me.

just to be clear to those who keep saying about the holiday period, I am not referring to that. We were told (just my unit) that we (just RN’s) cannot use PTO from Oct. 28 until after the New Year and that the reason is budget related. That is a longer period of time than our hospital policy of mid-December to mid-January.