Furloughed employee

rroberts

Can anyone give me a definition of "furloughed employees" with regard to exempt employees? It's been explained to me that some companies put exempt employees on "furlough" for a short period of time without pay due to temporary plant closings.
Benefits stay in place and the employee is given a return to work date, similar to a temporary layoff, I guess. Any advise is appreciated. Thanks.

stilldazed

Proceed carefully and consider whether your employer is public or private. I haven't heard the reference 'furlough' with respect to exempt employees, but FLSA will dictate unless a state regulation has a tighter restriction. I can tell that I put the following in a general Internet search field--exempt & furlough & employee & "lay off"--and had some interesting results. One of the first was a legal warning from a private practice advising against 'furloughing' exempt employees in a specific state. Other links went directly to state-sponsored web pages that discussed furlough options. Try the seasrch and see if you get what you are after.

best wishes.

rroberts

Thanks, Stilldazed. I've been searching the internet also and can't seem to find a definitive answer. I'll try your suggestion search also.

stilldazed

In the quick look I took, I think that you'll find that 'furlough' is an adapted name for a category and that there is no real 'legal' category. I had the feeling while I was looking that public employers had the tendency to call the person furloughed & private employers would call it something different.