Shift Diffential

Sue2

We have certain employees who work 12 hour shifts at different plants. Per policy we pay shift differential. It has just come to light that some plants have interpreted that shift differential applies to any time other than the normal 8 am - 5 pm. Therefore, some employees working a shift of 7 am - 7 pm have been paid shift diffential for 7 am - 8 am and 5 pm to 7 pm. I think the intent of the policy was for day shift 7 am - 7 pm to not be eligible for overtime. What would you consider to be "shift differential"? Needless to say, we have a PROBLEM that may affect morale and impact the company financially. Your thoughts.
Thanks!

E Wart

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-05-07 AT 11:48AM (CST)[/font][br][br]We do shift differentials, but it is for those who work an ENTIRE shift that is "outsid of the norm". Like we have 2:30 to 11:00 pm and a 10:30pm-6:30 am. These folks get a differential for these times. However, employees whose schedule is 6:30am-2:30pm get the "regular pay" even if they come in at 6:00am and work until 6:00pm. They are not "assigned" an alternate shift. Normally these folks are paid this extra pay because it is a time folks normally don't want to work.
I think someone in your operation confused differential with overtime/exempt non-exempt or something.
Sounds like you do have a problem. I would love to try to figure out who interpreted this policy this way. (I bet it came up when an employee changed from a sift job to regular schedule job and they wanted the extra money. )
Ellen
E Wart

Irie

Our shift differential is paid per shift. We run three shifts and each employee assigned to that shift gets the differential.

If a first shift employee works outside of their normal shift times by a couple of hours we would not apply a shift differential unless we permanently assigned them to another shift.

Sue2

Thanks for the input. Actually what I think happened was when these employees changed from working 8 am to 5pm to working 7 am to 7 pm and 7 pm to 7 am the supervisor did get differential pay and overtime confused...and maybe was also trying to compensate them for working longer hours.