Can they legally take these hours away?

My husband has worked for a landscaping company for years. This year they are taking away all his paid vacation days, his paid holidays, and a bunch of other things he earned--all for the sake of saving the company money. One of their new rules is "if you are commuting from one job site to the next, only the person driving is on the clock. The other person not driving automatically gets 30 minutes deducted from their day for driving time."
How can they legally do this? It's not like he has a choice of being there and he is traveling in between their job sites from condo to condo.He punches in in the morning and his crew goes all the way out to another county most of the week. I feel this is really unfair and seems somehow illegal. The worst part is--the company is really not suffering financially at all at this time. They are just taking "precautionary measures"

michr

Paid time off is not required by law and the companies policy on it may be changed however in some (very few) states the earned time must be paid out so there is a possibility that this is illegal but only in a very few states.

The travel time between jobs is work time and is part of the job and as such it MUST BE PAID.
See:
http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/workhours/traveltime.htm

Your husband needs to have an honest discussion with his employer about his concerns and if the employer is not going to follow the law then you need to contact the department of labor.

For clarification and assistance contact your state's department of labor, this link list all of them just click on your state.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/contacts/state_of.htm

James Hassle

This sounds fishy at best but I would contact your local labor board and put the question to them. Things can be different county to county not to mention state to state. Perhaps your husband might consider putting his resume in front of other companies? Just being there for years might be attractive to other companies. When I worked in landscaping it was a relief to have capable employees who stuck around. Either way... good luck!

Nikhil C

I believe it is legal if it's part of your husband's contract or whatever.. where they have the right to change rules and times in bad situations. Call a local authority figure and ask about this, if it IS illegal, then sue them.

quixoticalthoughts

It is legal if it is in the contract, but I think it has to be like... punch in punch out type stuff... technically he is working by going from job site to job site... so ... they should be paying him.

Sweetharttt

If he wants a job, he will go along with the rules. I am sure there are many people that would love his job. I don't believe it is illegal what they are doing.

rottendog93

Only they can answer

http://www.dol.gov/

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