Setting a precedence for Holiday Pay?
HR Mouse
53 Posts
Our company policy states that an employee will be paid for a Company Paid Holiday as follows:
If the employee works 16-29 hours the week of the holiday (our pay weeks run from Mon thru Sun) they will be paid 4.0 hours for the Holiday.
If the employee work 30+ hours the week of the holiday they will be paid 8.0 hours for the Holiday.
For the Labor Day Holiday one of our Managers decided to do some tweaking to this policy and how certain employees would be paid for that day. If they fell within an hour short of qualifying for more time she paid them as if they met the criteria (example: An employee's total hours for the week of the holiday were a total of 15.2 hours so she would not meet the requirements for any Holiday pay, but the manager paid her for 4.0 hours.). Now that this has been done does it set a precedence for all future Holiday Pay? One of our GM's says we should always favor the employee if the difference is within an hour and the other GM says we shouldn't do it again. The GM who doesn't want us to do it again thinks it should be taken on a case by case basis & if the manager feels the employees deserve more hours for that day then it should be up to her. I cringe at that for a couple of reasons, one being that this manager is really difficult and usually pretty crabby - and she plays favorites with her employees. I don't feel she could be as fair & impartial the next time something happens during a Holiday week; bad weather where the employee was sent home a little early one day so they would have met the hourly criteria had they NOT been sent home, etc.
Any thoughts? In MY opinion we should continue to round up in favor of the employee.
Comments
Mouse-
At my former company we had a similar "policy" in which we alway rounded up. In efforts to maximize consistency, the Mngrs were not allowed to make a unilateral decision regarding awarding hours, time off, comp time, holiday time, etc. All decisions had to be made in conjunction with all other depts following the same guidelines across the board with HR as the final "yay/nay" based on equality throughout. Keep in mind the motto "do for one, do for all".
In regards to your other posted issues---all I can say is I feel for you! I am curious to read the responses. Good luck to you!
You should follow the policy as it is written. You of course can change the policy, but I would pay in conjunction to what it says now. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
I wonder if you have a statement in your policy & procedures or employee handbook that states who can change the policies? For example, our handbook states that no one except the president of the company can change or alter any policy. The manager who decided to give the holiday pay could be in violation of your policy.
I would never just pay on a case to case basis. That is a sure way to find yourself in court down the line for unfair pay practices. How would you react if the manager only wanted to pay the men for the holiday and not the women employees? It sounds extreme, but easier to happen then you think. Suppose Manager A employs all men in your sales department and the Manager B employs women in your accounting department. Different demographics in the departments just happen to break down that way, but I am sure a jury would not take that into account.
I would also be concerned about all the employees who did not get paid holiday pay since their manager did not "tweak" the policy. They could have a wage claim.