bomb threats

System

If we were to have a bomb threat, do I have to pay the salaried exempt employees for the full days' work? What if we miss more that 1 day? How about the hourly employees?

sandra_d

Yes - truly exempt employees cannot have their pay docked except under certain FMLA situations where leave has been exhausted. I suppose you could charge them vacation/PTO for hours not worked - but would you want to do that? Hourly/nonexempt employees are required to be paid for time worked. If you require them to hang around outside in case everyone is permitted to go back in the building following the bomb scare, then I believe that time should be paid. If they are permitted to go home, or go shopping, or you are otherwise not in control of their time and how they choose to use it, it does not have to be paid time. They could request vacation/PTO to cover lost time.

Leslie

We have this in our policy but it really only addresses non-exempt employees:

Special Circumstance - Enterprise Closure
Should an enterprise close due to circumstances beyond the employee’s control, the enterprise shall reimburse employees who are on the clock for the remainder of that shift. For the duration of the closure, all scheduled employees will be reimbursed for two hours time per shift to a maximum of 12 hours. Employees will be able to use any available sick and/or vacation paid leave to compensate for any scheduled lost time due to the closure.

Our electricity went out around noon one day and my five employees are all exempt, so they got paid for the rest of the day. Don't know what I would do if that happened for a couple days in a row.