Ex-BuzzFeed workers will get paid for unused vacation days

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti has relented and will pay laid-off staffers for their accrued paid time off, he told staff in a companywide email Monday afternoon.

Peretti took action after he and other top BuzzFeed executives were blasted for refusing to pay recently laid-off workers for their unused vacation time — in a letter from employees that called the move “unconscionable.”

“This is paid time that employees accrued by choosing not to take vacation days, and instead work at BuzzFeed,” according to the scathing letter signed by a group calling itself the BuzzFeed News Staff Council as well as “current and laid-off staffers from across BuzzFeed.”

The letter, addressed to Peretti, editor-in-chief Ben Smith and HR boss Lenke Taylor, claimed the news outlet paid “earned, accrued, and vested paid time off” only to its California workers because it was required to do so by state law.

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