Can I require an employee to cancel their vacation? - HR Insights

Can I require an employee to cancel their vacation?

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Question:

I have an employee who put in for PTO this week. However, their coverage fell through and now I don’t have anyone to work those shifts. I told the employee they needed to cancel their plans and work that week. However, the employee argued that I wasn’t allowed to do that, and that they had already bought plane tickets. Can I require someone to cancel their vacation?

Answer:

Broadly speaking, there’s no law that prevents you from canceling an employee’s PTO request, even if they have bought tickets or are mid-vacation. As long as you are compensating them for any time already taken, you are within your right to cancel the remaining time off, provided there’s nothing in your policy that says otherwise. That being said, it’s not advisable to do so unless absolutely necessary, and there are some things you can do to lessen the impact on the employee.

No one is going to be happy that their vacation is cancelled. If you are a business where coverage is tight and vacations might have to be delayed, it’s important you communicate that to employees before they put in PTO requests. Furthermore, in a case where an employee is traveling and has already purchased plane tickets, best practice would be to reimburse the employee for that cost, although that may not always be feasible.

It's also important to take steps to mitigate the possibility of canceling vacations. Many employers use a ‘first come, first service’ basis for PTO requests – if there are too many vacation requests at the same time, or would result in a lapse of coverage, the employer will deny the request and ask the employee to use PTO at another time. This way, employers can avoid prolonged periods of time with multiple employee absences resulting in low coverage.

While this discussion is about PTO, this problem is flipped on its head if employees are using state required paid sick leave. Those policies tend to have legal protections that stops an employer from restricting paid sick leave use.

Keep in mind that canceling an employee’s pre-scheduled time off or asking them to come in to work during their scheduled time off may impact employee morale and could result in turnover. It’s a good idea to weigh the pros and cons of making such a decision and ensure the business is prepared for the employee to refuse and instead resign.

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Can I require an employee to cancel their vacation?

Please note: This information is not legal advice and may not reflect specific state or local requirements.