Fair Labor Standards Act and paid sick leave

1Harry

Does paid sick leave qualify as time worked under the Fair Labor Standards Act when caculating overtime? For example we have a custodian who used a half day paid sick leave in the morning but then worked overtime that evening. He worked a total of 38 hours for the week excluding his 4 hours for paid sick leave. With the paid sick leave he now has 42 hours. Must we pay him overtime for the 2 hours he worked over 40 for that week?

Down_the_Middle

Unless you have a policy or past practice of paying overtime for all hours paid, sick time is not included in the FLSA calculation for O/T. O/T s/b payable based on hours worked.............

sonny

If you have a collective bargaining agreement, check that, too. I have worked where there was language that said for the purpose of calculating overtime, paid leave time WILL count and also worked where it says it will not. I think the later is more common and as noted above, certainly ok to go by hours WORKED.

bsa

You can change your policy to be clear on the issue of overtime. Notify your employees of the change and it's effective date, change your handbook and management manuals, and stop paying overtime for paid leave.