The is a bit of an odd situation that I had not been able to find a direct answer to online yet. Lawyers we’ve reached out to for clarification haven’t responded. I am posting on behalf of my partner who doesn’t use Reddit.

My partner works in a private practice for an eye doctor. In the past few months, she had taken ill, had an ER visit, and had a death in the family. She used what PTO she had, and did not expect to get paid for the remaining hours.

However, her employer went ahead and started letting her go negative on accrued PTO. Employer states this is normal, however we could not find anything in their employee handbook about going negative on PTO. They only stated via a text message to her that “we normally let people go up to 10 hours negative”.

The problem we have run in to is that the owner is now wanting my partner to come on a day off to “make up” the negative PTO balance. This would be done with a full shift but would not be paid.

What’s more, my partner verified that going negative on PTO was not discussed with her previously, is not in the employee handbook, and that she didn’t want it to happen again if she had to take time off. After a trip to the ER for a minor injury, her employer ended up continuing to drive her PTO time negative.

There are other employees who are currently working without pay to make up for negative balances they’ve accrued due to these same practices.

To me, this sounds like wage theft. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!