Mandatory 45 hours for Salaried Employees

mmena

I work in NE. We are an IT organization where most of my co-workers and myself are exempt. We have been recently told that we will be required to work 45 hours per week. Management then backtracked, and stated that they cannot "mandate" the 45 hour week, but can "mandate" that employees must work until their work is complete. Management also stated that there is plenty of work, and if you are able to complete your work in 40 hours, you are expected to request more work to get to the 45. Is this legal within the framework of wage and hour? I am having a difficult time finding any additional information on this subject, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Don D

I'm no expert but think that if it can be shown that the employer, either through actions or policy or suggestion, is in effect creating a climate of minimum mandatory hours expectations for salaried ee's, they would be presumed to be in violation by DOL. I also think their veiled attempt at skirting the FLSA by ditching the policy but causing the same effect, is going to be futile if an investigation ensues. I would liken that to an employer who said, "Well, we can no longer have that written policy of not hiring women, but, let me just tell you managers that we only have one restroom and you need to hire people with that in mind."

Crout

Suppose you don't work the 45 hours? Will they dock pay? That's where the illegalities will begin.

mmena

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-15-03 AT 02:12PM (CST)[/font][p][font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-15-03 AT 02:09 PM (CST)[/font]

The will not be docking pay if you do not work the 45, however, it could show up on performance appraisals and be used as leverage to eliminate a particular employee if layoffs come about. All employees are also required to document each and every hour they spend in the office by task (for example, I worked 8 hours on Monday, 1 hour was for voicemail/email, 3 hours for project x, and 4 hours vacation), and can never have less than 40 hours per week documented. A custom system has been built to track all hours of all IT employees.

Hunter1

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-15-03 AT 02:50PM (CST)[/font][p]Some may say that tracking hours at all is going to be a problem, but I disagree (In WI, state law says you have to document all employees' time worked, for example). Crout is right. If you're correctly classified as exempt, when pay docking starts, it gets illegal, but I've worked for a couple of employers (including my current one) who expected exempt employees to work 45 hours/week. Is it reasonable to think that the exempt supervisor on a factory production line can get to work and leave at the same time as his/her employees, and get their work done, or that a one person HR office can serve two or three shifts in an 8 hour day?

System

I believe it's legal to mandate a 45-hour workweek for exempt personnel if they are legally classified as exempt. If a person is salaried-non-exempt, they can require a 45-hour workweek but must pay 5 hours of overtime.

State laws may be different.

"Sam"