Mandatory OT/Holday-Vacation

Could I possibly cover any more topics in one subject line?

We have pretty much mandatory OT in most departments of our plant. One dept works 10 hours per day typically, others 9.5 or 9. We have a lot of complaining because holidays, vacation, and “bonus” time (all paid at 8 hours per day) causes their paychecks to be short. Anybody have any laws or policies I can quote?

It’s frustrating because we have a morale problem (who doesn’t, I know) and no matter what we give, it is never enough. It doesn’t seem fair to pay one person 10 hours holiday pay and another 9, but I think people would rather see that than a short check. There has been a suggestion to try to have some weeks where we don’t work overtime, but I think the howl about short checks be louder (they want fewer hours but not a drop in their checks).

It’s not like we’re paying minimum wage, either, and we just raised wages 5%. At the same time, we went from paying over 8 hours in a day as OT to over 40 in a week to try and reward the good and punish the bad (you have to show up every day to get OT). Because they are short in a week (but not for the year with the 5%), people are ticked.

Does anybody have the info on how to calculate the “value” of benefits? As I’ve seen it, it gives you the total per hour that you’re getting from the company and is quite eye-opening. I haven't seen it in quite a while though.

Oh, the joys of a small labor pool! Thanks for any help anyone can give, and for you poor souls who read this. Sometimes a girl just needs to vent! Happy Monday -

Comments

  • 6 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • We are in a similar situation where everyone generally works 9 to 11 hour days, 5 days a week. Overtime is after 40 hours worked (so holidays, vacation, etc. is not counted) but we just pay everyone 8 hours for holiday pay. If someone takes off and uses vacation pay they can ask for as many hours as they would have normally missed. I know that certain departments complain when there is a holiday, but I tell them something like, "hey, you got to have the day off with pay, how nice of the owners to give you holiday pay." x:)
  • Our plants had a similar situation and numerous employee complaints. We resolved this issue as "A holiday is considered your normal working hours for your required shift, and the rate of pay is your regular hourly rate." "Likewise, one day of vacation pay is equal to the required amount of hours for your normal shift at your regular hourly rate."

    In other words, we pay a 10-hour-day employee 10 hours for holiday; in exchange, we expect them to use 10 hours vacation. Majority of the employees are happy with this arrangement.
  • Don't you find it hard to have a reasonable conversation with an EE when his/her hand is in your pocket?
  • We are all salaried here...so I can't help you much with your OT issue. But you did ask about putting benefits on they paycheck, just to show ee's what the employer is paying out on his/her behalf.

    Our paychecks now include the employer amount paid for (on behalf of that ee) health, life, dental, perscription, and employer retirement contribution. It was quite eye opening.
  • [font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-19-04 AT 04:30PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I used to work at a company that had a 9/80 schedule (work 80 hours in 9 days instead of 10) for a portion of the employee population, others worked normal hours. We solved the "do we pay 8 or 9 hours of time off?" problem by allowing the employee to determine the number of hours they were paid for the day.

    For example, we had 5 holidays, that's 40 hours of holiday pay. When a holiday occured, the employee could put down 8 or 9 hours. Once they hit 40 hours they were out of holiday pay for the year. If they wanted to be paid for future holiday hours they had to use vacation.

    Forgot to add: we explained it this way - the company gives every employee 40 hours of holiday pay. How you "spend" it is up to you.
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