Human Resource Blog

Holiday Change

I have 50+ employees working in several retail locations in NJ. Due to the challenging retail environment are currently in , my operations manager has been altering the work schedules of several of my key employees in an attempt to drive business. He has suggested bringing in several managers in on holiday weekends. My concern is that when these employees were hired these holidays were listed in there employee manual as one of their 6 paid holidays. This change is not made as a matter of policy, but rather an on the fly change “we are asking managers to work this holiday weekend”. We have asked managers last minute to work on the weekend , and given them a comp day the following week in the past. But this seems to be opening us up to challenges by employees and potential HR issues.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,

You need not be concerned. This tactic is actually very common in retail, hospitality and a number of other industries. The exempt employees are receiving a holiday — they are being given a different day off the following week. But even if they were not, it would still be legal.

Exempt employees can be required to work any number of hours, and any days — including holidays, including 7 days per week. Normally, in operations that are open on holidays, the definition of *paid holiday* is *a paid day off at another point*. Usually it is the same work week, but it does not have to be.And for exempt employees, the employer could even have them work 6 days the following week, and the 7th day would be the *paid holiday*. An exempt managers job description is to work *whatever it takes* to make the business successful, and in this case it takes working on the holidays.

Having exempt managers work on holidays is a very common cost-saving measure that employers utilize, especially if they would be paying overtime or a holiday premium to hourly workers. There is absolutely nothing for you to be concerned about.