When the office closes, and the boss charges workers paid time off

This Help Wanted column focuses on questions about whether employees should be paid when a business closes for a holiday.

DEAR CARRIE: My son works for a nonprofit. The office will close on New Year's Day and remain closed the day after, which is a Friday. To get paid for that Friday, employees must use a vacation day. Some of the employees would rather work, but the doors will be closed. Is it legal for the company to charge their paid time off when the business closes?

-- No-Fun Holiday

DEAR NO-FUN: The approach is Scrooge-like, but it's legal. And it's legal for both hourly and exempt workers.

Employers have to pay hourly employees only for the hours they work. So the company can legally decline to pay those employees when the office is closed or can give them the option of using a vacation day to cover that time off.

Even exempt workers, such as managers, can be required to use a vacation day in that scenario. But if they have none left, the company can't dock their pay if they can't work a day through no fault of their own.

DEAR CARRIE: I work for a small company with five employees, including the owner. We do not have any written policies since the owner contends that his business is too small for such things and that he can pretty much do anything he wants regarding employees. And that includes a benefits policy. All employees are entitled to a two-week vacation after one year. Plus, we are paid when the company is closed for major holidays. A vacation week I took recently included a paid holiday. I thought I was tacking on four vacation days to that paid holiday. But after the fact, I learned that I had used five vacation days because the company doesn't pay for major holidays when they are part of an employee's vacation week. Is this legal?

-- Gotcha Policy

DEAR GOTCHA: Your employer needs to get out more often or read up on labor laws. Size doesn't matter when it comes to compliance with labor law. Despite the size of the company, the owner still has to either post the paid time-off policy or provide employees with a written copy. Employers can decide whether to offer paid time off because such benefits aren't mandatory. And employers can set the terms for the policy. But state labor law says they have to tell employees about the policy in advance. Your employer can legally stipulate when a major holiday is paid, but without a prior notification, the policy seems questionable.

DEAR READERS: This is my last column of 2014, and I wanted to thank you for all the great questions you sent my way throughout the year. Because of you, I was able to feature some interesting and usual workplace questions. Some included: the worker whose boss caps bathroom breaks at nine minutes a day; the worker whose company requires employees to wear pricey clothing purchased from a sole company-designated retailer; the red-light camera questions about who should pay the ticket an employee receives while driving the company car, and the worker who needed help to deal with a bullying boss. Keep those questions coming in the new year!