Exempt Deduction for pers./sick leave when working 8 hours in a day

hughesma

Our Arizona company's full-time employees accrue 5 sick leave/personal days per year. Exempt (like non-exempt) employees are required to have this "bank" docked for, among other things, illness, doctor/dentist appts., etc. However, time spent away from the office for an appt. for exempt employees must be docked even if the ee makes up the time during the same day. For example, workday is 8-5 (1 hour for lunch). EE has morning appt. with dentist and arrives at office at 10:00 am. EE works through lunch and leaves at 6:00 pm. (or later). Can employer still force deduction from sick/personal bank?

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-08-03 AT 04:29PM (CST)[/font][p]Under US DOL formal Opinion on FLSA regulations (at 29CFR541.118), the employer may charge accrued time balances for partial days' absences without jeopardizing the employee's exempt status. DOL sees accrued time balances as fringe benefits not as salary. But some states may prohibit it because state law may see it as a form of salary (PTO, vacation or maybe even sick time). I don't know what Arizona does.

It just seems bad employer relations to charge the the accrued time balance for the partial day's absence if the exempt employee "makes it up" even if state law would permit charging the time balance.