The Mass Pike Might Want To Revisit Its Budget Numbers

Most adults have jobs, and this is a good thing. Most employers, on other hand, think they can fire their non-union, non-contract employees at any time for any nondiscriminatory reason, freely alter plans for bonus compensation and sick leave, and the like. And they’re usually right about this.*

Today, however, the Appeals Court in LeMaitre v. Massachusetts Tpk. Auth, Mass. App. Ct. No. 06-P-0455, held that a personnel manual can give an employee a contractual right to get paid for sick leave. And this isn’t the first such case – legal authority on this question goes back quite a ways. You’d think employers in Massachusetts would have quit issuing personnel manuals a while ago, right? Not the Mass Pike.

Think about the number of Pike employees who will take advantage of this decision for their own benefit. This case might be a bigger deal that one engineer's sick pay.

* Whether you think this is a good thing depends on where you sit.