Human Resource Blog

Request for Vacation Denied

Can an employer in Oklahoma deny a request for time off for any reason other than a business reason if the salaried employee has PTO time (Paid Time Off, sick or vacation time) available?

As an employer, you can establish whatever company policies you like about the use of PTO or vacation time. However, to be fair and avoid charges of illegal discrimination, you should apply those policies uniformly to all employees. Ideally those policies would be in writing, and employees would be aware of them in advance. For example, you might deny an employee vacation over the July 4th holiday because two people are already on vacation at that time. But denying an emloyee time off over July 4th becasue she wanted to be maid of honor in her cousin’s wedding, and you dislike her cousin, is a recipe for disaster. Ideally, HR pros should not put themselves in the position of determining who has the more “valid” need for time off. It’s better to implement a straight-forward “first come, first served” policy by granting vacation requests in the order they are completed and turned in to management.