[Avodah] not working on chol hamoed

[Daniel Israel]

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:41:55 -0600 Chana Luntz 
<chana at kolsassoon.org.uk> wrote:
>I think you can see where I am going.  If you hold that it is 
assur to
>work on chol hamoed, and the employer (a Jew noch) is improperly 
trying
>to get her to be over on an issur - why is there a choshen mishpat
>problem about her failing to give him a proper day's work.  He is 
not
>entitled to her work on that day, and ought to be giving her a 
>holiday, in the same way as an employer is required to allow a Jew 
to 
>observe shabbas (despite losing a seventh of the possible working 
week 
>to shabbas) and should not be penalizing the Jew for observing 
>shabbas.

Obviously a Jewish employer can't require (or even allow) a Jewish 
employee to work on shabbos, but your arguement above seems to 
imply that the Jewish employer is obligated to give _paid_ 
vacation.  (Use the example of Yom Tov instead of Shabbos, and the 
case is clearer.)  In this case she is getting paid, not using up 
any allocated vacation time, and also not working.  Perhaps a beis 
din would consider that a reasonable knas, but the halacha doesn't 
necessarily impose it.

As a practical issue, if she is in danger of losing her job for not 
coming in (as opposed to simply losing a day's pay, which is 
exactly what she is mechuyav in) then there is a practical problem: 
if she refuses to accept payment for that day, she effectively 
informs on herself resulting in her being fired.  But that doesn't 
remove the CM issue of accepting payment for work she didn't do.

--
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu