PTO Implementation Issue

Will K

My company recently switched to a PTO system as part of our new union contract. As a result hourly employees can now take PTO in 1-hour increments to cover doctor's apointments, etc. A situation has arisen where an employee requested 2 hours of PTO, but finished her appointment early and wanted to return to work after 90 minutes.

To those of you with similar policies, how have you addressed this kind of situation - do you tell the employee to, in effect, "stay away" until they use up the scheduled 2 hours, allow them to go back on the clock early and just pay out the extra 30 minutes, or some other alternative? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Parabeagle

We allow them to come back early and just revise their PTO accounting to reflect the change. With less than 200 employees it's really not that much of a burden.

Don D

Under your policy, what would you do if the opposite occured and the ee had to be an extra 30 minutes returning to work because of mass scheduling at the clinic? If you are flexible in one case, I think you would be in the other.

HRPeg

We adjust the PTO in either direction. You need to be willing to do either or neither...we all know how doctor's appts can be. However, we also have 200 employees, so it is not that big of a problem.

Nat

We don't have PTO but do have a sick policy (also must be taken in 1 hour increments). WE handle these situations by letting the employee request the time off but not fill the paperwork out until they return so there is no need to adjust anything. The paperwork (leave slip) is filled out correctly. Hope this helps. It works fine for us.