Can salaried exempt personnel be held to a strict scheduled starting time?

DKondrick

Our salaried exempt employees have an "unwritten rule" that they will be at work by 7:30 a.m. Hourly employees are scheduled in at 8 a.m. For the most part there is a compelling busines reason for this earlier morning start. However, one new female marketing manager cannot make the 7:30 a.m. start due to her child care providers schedule. Is it legal to make and hold salaried personnel to a strict start time and count them tardy if they don't comply?

System

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-12-01 AT 01:56PM (CST)[/font][p]If, when you hired the individual or at a later time, you and she agreed that she would be at work at 7:30 a.m. because of compelling business reasons (her duties require doing something regularly at about that time or being available for emergency work, for example), then you can hold her accountable to not meeting the agreed to expectations of her work, BUT you may NOT dock her pay for her tardiness. If the change occurred after she started that REQUIRED her to be at work by or at 7:30 a.m, I assume you discussed it with her and she agreed that she would or that she indicated a child-care problem but that she agreed to try to make it in by 7:30 a.m. So, it is a disciplinary matter and performance issue, NOT a time issue. In short, she isn't doing something that she needs to be doing because she isn't there at 7:30 a.m.

I assume that this situation does not fall under FMLA or similar state law regarding "new parents" or parents of a seriously ill child. Further, unless there is state law that speaks to the general issue of making some type of accommodation for employees who have child care arrangements to allow them to come in late or adjust their hours in some manner (which I doubt that there is), you should not be "in trouble" for dealing with this matter because it is supposedly child-care caused. Besides, even if there were such a law, I suspect that it would only allow for reasonable adjustments, not something that would override the business needs of the employer, as you indicate that she is doing by not reporting at 7:30 a.m.

WOCO Frank

>If, when you hired the individual or at a later time, you and she
>agreed that she would be at work at 7:30 a.m. because of compelling
>business reasons

Gene's answer is a good one. I'd only add that his first line contains a very important phrase - "compelling business reasons". Before you go to far with any ttype of disciplinary approach here, I'd recommend that you take a good hard look at whether your 7:30 requirement is because of compelling business reasons, or whether it is a relic of some specific antiquated processes, or just an "image" thing (wanting salaried personnel to arrive early to set a good example for the troops). If there is not a compelling business reason for her to be there at 7:30, tread very carefully.