Exempt on FMLA making up time

Irie

We have an exempt employee approved for intermittent FMLA. This employee has asked if when they need to take a full day off from work they could make up their time at a later date and get paid.

Already this employee gets paid for a full day for any FMLA time they take off for part of the day even though we don't have to pay them.

Would allowing this exempt employee to make up time then classify them as non-exempt? I'm confused and could use some help. Thanks.

LindaS

I'm assuming you "dock" their pay for an entire day missed, correct? This would not affect their exempt status as long as they make up their time within the same work week.

NaeNae55

If I understand you right, you have an employee who might have to take Tuesday off for FMLA reasons and then want to work Saturday to make it up.

It is up to you to designate FMLA, so in my opinion you could do this. However, you would probably set yourself up for trouble from other employees (and how would you keep track?). What if the employee you let do this is a white male and later a black female hourly employee wants to do the same? Not doing this for all employees could set you up for a discrimination claim. If employees can make up this time, why bother to designate anything as FMLA?

You are already being generous by not counting partial days against them. I would let the employee know that you have that option so they get a clearer picture of where they stand and how much they are already getting.

Here, if you take a day off and end up working Saturday that is just the way it goes. The day off would still count against your leave.

I strongly advise you to tell the employee no.

Nae

FunHRBanker

They day off counts against FMLA, period. If the employee opts (and you allow) them to work Saturday, they work Saturday. If they weren't on leave and came in on Saturday, they wouldn't get paid extra. FMLA is not about "making up the hours." You were gone that day. This is difficult to explain to employees, but I'm working on it!

NaeNae55

Fun makes a good point.

FMLA is FMLA. Even if you allow partial days or make up days, that can refer to pay only. You can, and should, still count the hours towards total FMLA leave.

Good luck!

Nae

Rockie

We don't allow anyone to "make up" FMLA time. If it qualifies for FMLA, it is counted that way.

moon

To All:

I am having difficulty understanding these posts since the Federal regulations state --"Deductions from pay may be made when an exempt employee is absent from work for a full day for personal reasons, OTHER THAN SICKNESS OR DISABILITY." (emphasis mine). The regulations also state "Deductions from pay may be made for absences of a FULL DAY (emphasis mine) or more occasioned by sickness or disability (including work related accidents) if the deduction is made in accordance with a bonafide plan, policy or practice of providing compensation for loss of salary occasioned by such sickness or disability."

In view of this and other language in the regulations one can conclude that partial day deductions should never be made from an exempt employees pay and full day deductions due to absences for sickness should only be made in conjuction with a bonafide plan, policy or practice of providing compensation for loss of salary occasioned by such sickness.

Moon

moon

To All:

I should have continued my earlier post by adding --- If a Co. has normally paid their exempt employees in accordance with the regulations that existed prior to FMLA and in fact have made a practice of not docking exempt employees for personal time off so long as it was not excessive then the question becomes where is the logic and why should FMLA leave be forced upon them so they might be docked. What about employees who telecommute or travel.? How could you keep up with such minute details? As long as an exempt employee is doing their job they should not in my opinion be nit picked; on the other hand if they are not doing the job for which they were hired they should be fired.

Moon