Manhattan, NY – City Hall Holy War Brewing over Workers Time Off

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    Manhattan, NY – The city Human Resources Administration didn’t pick the best time to tighten its policy for allowing workers time off.

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    HRA issued a memo this week — one month before the start of the Jewish High Holy Days — warning it would advance only two days’ leave to employees who want to take off for religious reasons but don’t have enough hours locked away in their accounts.

    Rosh Hashanah begins on the evening of Sept. 28 and ends at nightfall Sept. 30. Yom Kippur starts at sundown Oct. 7, a Friday, and runs through Saturday until sundown.

    Officials said supervisors could make exceptions on an individual basis.


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    13 Comments
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    ModernLakewoodGuy
    ModernLakewoodGuy
    12 years ago

    My employer gives me a certain number of hours each year to use for vacation, sick days, personal days, religious days,etc. The first thing I do in January is calculate how many hours I need for all yom tovim. Then whatever is left over, I can use for days off etc. If an employee used his time off for other reasons, he cannot expect his employer to just let him get off work for religious holidays.

    12 years ago

    I’m sure HRA will allow observant Jewish employees to be advanced more than 2 days for religious observance. This memo was clearly written by

    mewhoze
    mewhoze
    12 years ago

    rosh hashonah and yom kippur are even observed by non religious folks. any supervisor not allowing those days off should be sued for discrimination

    12 years ago

    At work I knew that I had 20 days off for the whole year. Almost right away I would ask off for everything: Pesach, Shavuos, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Succos, sometimes even Purim. And I made sure to save some time for sick days just in case. I am not saying Yiddin should not get time off, but if you didn’t bother to plan out your days, you can’t whine too much. Playing the Jew card to get extra days off doesn’t seem too right.

    That said, a Shana Tova to all.

    12 years ago

    It seem that some people are not understanding this. They will let the employees take off (even if they don’t have any leave balance). But if they don’t have any time they will have to take leave without pay. Why don’t people understand this? If you know that the Yomim Tovim fall out on the weekdays, you have to save your days for the Yomim Tovim. You can’t take off every Friday in the summer & then expect the city to advance you the days.

    proud-mo-israeli
    proud-mo-israeli
    12 years ago

    no one is forcing you to live in Galut.
    Here in Israel, Chagim are time off for everyone. It’s not even a question or an issue.
    Not only that, but every kid, religious or not knows when every Chag is & what it’s about. Bet you can’t say that in Galut!

    The_Truth
    Noble Member
    The_Truth
    12 years ago

    As my (non-religious) boss said to me when I joined the company, “We know the days you’ll be taking off for Chagim, thousands of years in advance!”
    If you didn’t plan your vacation days off with Yomim Tovim in mind, then its your own fault – we all know when Yom Tov will fall, years in advance.

    kollelfaker
    kollelfaker
    12 years ago

    the problem is city workers are Use to getting VACATION using other accrued time for their holidays do what every one else in the real world does use your time wisely and make sure that you leave days for yom tov

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    12 years ago

    I don’t get paid for yomim tovim, at all!

    gittyaa
    gittyaa
    12 years ago

    it works like this, you “earn” about one day a month annual leave. i reserve all my annual leave for yomim tovim. however, when there are 15 days of yomtov in the year, you’re short 3 days. until now, the policy was that i could “pay back” the advanced days by working november – april without any time off. the iker problem was the TIMING of the new policy. had they waited until november, it would have been ok. like this, we’re losing 8 days pay, at a time when it’s needed for yomtov.