Hurricane & Exempt LWOP

dchr9203

Do any of you have a suggestion on how to handle Exempt salaried employees evacuating Texas who wish to be on "discretionary" LWOP (they don't want to use PTO to cover the full days out of work.) Considering the extenuating circumstances, I'm not sure how best to manage this one. My gut says if its their choice why not; but then again the DOL might think differently. Any advice?

LivindonSouth

The DOL could not care less. During Katrina, our decision was to forgive any time missed due to necessity caused by the storm, for exempts.

pork1

We, alittle further North than Don, waited in our homes for the General Manager to make his way into the plant and decide whether it was safe for the management team to get into our work sites. Once we got to our sites we called to those employees we could reach and invited them to come on in for we had power, computers, and water. Those that could come their work day started when they got to the work site. Any EXEMPT that could not get in due to fallen trees or personal concerns for their family and property were allowed to do their work from their home. We asked no questions but ask that they call us if their concerns could be helped by any of us. One EXEMPT used his 4 wheel drive pick-up and drove around to his employees houses and picked them up and carried them home, when the work was completed for the first day after Katrina. We paid for his milage.

A caring and effective company will forgive any lost time for both the non-exempt and the exempt who are faced with similiar circumstances and conditions.

PORK

LivindonSouth

Good point. I forgot to add that although we did not pay hourly wages for whole days not worked, we totally shelved our attendance policy for over a week.