Employee Not Entitled to Premium for Holiday Shift

Q I am an hourly employee working in the credit union industry. To meet our members’ Y2K withdrawal needs, we were assigned to work Friday.

My understanding is if a holiday falls on a Saturday, the paid day off is the preceding Friday. Instead, my employer will be giving a “floating holiday� in the first quarter of 2000 in exchange for working New Year’s Eve.

Assuming that I worked 32 hours to that point in the week, shouldn’t I have been entitled to be paid at a higher amount, rather than straight time, for working on a legal holiday?

--S.W., Chino Hills

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A It sounds as though Scrooge is running your credit union.

Unfortunately, you are not entitled to higher pay for working on the New Year’s holiday (observed New Year’s Eve) unless you are covered by a union contract requiring premium pay on legal holidays. Otherwise, you would be entitled to overtime premiums only if the high volume of work on New Year’s Eve results in your working more than 40 hours that workweek.

--Joseph L. Paller Jr.

Union, employee attorney

Gilbert & Sackman

Oral Promise Can Be Documented in Letter

Q I have been a nonunion, nonexempt employee of Los Angeles County for more than one year. During my employment interview and again after I started work, I was promised that I would be assigned to a work site closest to my home. Instead, I was assigned to a site 25 miles farther away.

I was told the assignment was temporary, but after a year, I am still there. My supervisor has refused to either reassign me or authorize reimbursement for the excess miles. My complaint to human resources yielded no change.

What action would you recommend?

--M.R., Diamond Bar

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A The problem with any oral workplace promise is that it is sometimes difficult to prove, especially if it is your word against that of the person who interviewed you.

You have not made it clear whether your current supervisor made the initial promise to you or whether it was someone else. If your interviewer was someone other than your current supervisor, consider talking to the interviewer again and confirming the promise about your assignment, preferably in writing.

Even if you could prove that the promises were made to you, however, you still must deal with the definition of a “temporary� assignment. Your employer might consider your assignment temporary--even if it lasts more than a year--until another location has an opening that fits your job description.

To avoid problems like this, employees should document important promises to them. It would have been very easy to send a letter to your interviewer confirming what was said to you. Even now, you can still talk to your supervisor and try to get a commitment for change in the future.

Try to define the exact time it will occur. Then send the supervisor a confirming note thanking him or her for the time spent in discussing it with you and stating any new promises.

You might want to consider any positions at closer locations that become available and then apply for a transfer. Of course, you could consider moving closer to that work location, or begin seeking a job with a new employer.

--Don D. Sessions

Employee rights attorney

Mission Viejo

Send letters to Shop Talk, Los Angeles Times, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 or e-mail it to [email protected]. Include your initials and hometown. The Shop Talk column is designed to answer questions of general interest. It should not be construed as legal advice.