Help Wanted: accumulated sick pay and FMLA

"If the employer terminates the employee at the end of the FMLA leave, it is only required to pay out the remaining sick days if its own policy requires it to do so," said Ellen Storch, of counsel at Kaufman Dolowich Voluck & Gonzo in Woodbury.

That's why it pays to read the fine print of your employer's paid-time-off policy as soon as you sign on with the company and if its rules change.

Regarding a possible termination, your employer could legally fire you if you don't return from the FLMA leave -- but with two possible exceptions, Storch said. First, your employer would have to extend your leave if its policy permits employees who have accumulated more than 12 weeks of sick time to extend their FMLA leave by that number of leftover days, she said. Secondly, the employer may have to extend the leave if the employee has a disability and can establish that an extended leave would permit the person to return eventually to work and perform the "essential functions" of the job, she said.

But she said, "The employer would not be required to grant the extension if doing so would impose an undue burden on it."

It sounds as if you and your colleagues were hourly employees. Labor laws require that you be paid for all the hours you work. If a company wants to pay some employees for hours they didn't work, labor laws have no quibble with that.

So while the policy may have been unfair, it seems perfectly legal.

For more on paid-time off and state labor laws go to http://bit.ly/vueHQu; For more on an FMLA leave go to http://1.usa.gov/sz5Ypd.