Paying nonexempt employees to attend civic organizations

sandy r

I was wondering how/if others are paying nonexempt employees to attend civic organization functions. Most of their meetings are over lunch. We are currently paying their dues and for the cost of their lunch but we are requiring them to use their lunch time -unpaid. What are others doing if the meeting is in the afternoon? Do they take this as unpaid time? If the company is paying for their time then how do you establish who can belong to what organizations to treat all employees equally. Where do you draw the line.

Rockie

If this is voluntary, then the company is under no obligation to pay for the time. If they go over their lunch break, I can't understand why they would expect to be paid for this. I believe you are very generous in paying for lunch as well as their dues.

If it's not over lunch, I would expect they would take unpaid time or use Paid Time Off leave.

What do other employees who don't choose to belong to these organizations think when their coworkers disappear to meetings and they are left doing the work?

HCCADC

If it is a part of the person's job to attend these meetings, you need to pay the employee. We do have employees go to meetings over lunch time and we pay the employee. Any work time has to be paid regardless if you pay dues/lunch. Have a good day!

WT

It all depends on what you want. We do have some management people who belong to various civic organizations. We do not require them to use paid time off to go to meetings. The reason for this is a perceived benefit to the organization by raising our profile in the community and enhancing our reputation.

Most likely, we would not do this for hourly employees for a number of reasons. They are in a union and any such benefit would have to be in the contract or become a past practice and as such, open to abuse.

If the good to your organization is worth the money, pay the time and count yourself a good corporate citizen.

Dutch2

We only have a couple of non-exempt ee's that are members of civic organizations. Since we encourage them to be members and to represent our company at these functions, due to their positions, we pay them for their time at the lunch meetings.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Sandy, what kind of civic organizations are we talking about? Does your organization feel its a benefit to have these non-exempt ee's participating?