non-exempt salary to non-exempt hourly
lwilley
3 Posts
We have an employee who is the only non-exempt salary out of 400. We want all non-exempts to clock in. How would you handle the conversation about changing them back to hourly. This employee has explosive personality
Comments
[quote user="lwilley"]We have an employee who is the only non-exempt salary out of 400. We want all non-exempts to clock in. How would you handle the conversation about changing them back to hourly. This employee has explosive personality[/quote]
You can make this person clock in AND leave them salaried. In fact, you should have been doing that, anyway, given they were non-exempt. If they're non-exempt, the Company is responsible for recording their hours to ensure compliance with minimum wage and overtime provisions. You have to keep track of hours worked for non-exempt employees no matter your method of pay. That's why most people just pay plain old fashioned hourly pay.
Because it sounds like there may be a compliance problem here, I'm going to recommend you do not leave them salaried and make them clock in because the answer to the question, "Why" could get uncomfortable for the Company. Even so, if you think you have back overtime liabilities, you should talk to a local employment law attorney.
There are a couple ways to handle this. One way is to simply play bureaucrat. "I'm not really here to debate this decision that has come down from top management, I'm merely communicating it to ensure you understand what is required of you moving forward." If the reason for the change is publishable, such as other "bad apples" abusing the system, go ahead and lay that on the table, too.
If you don't have any back OT liability, you can explain as much or as little as you think is necessary to mollify the person. If their personality is so explosive that they can't stand a change that should have no impact on their bottom line if they weren't taking advantage of the former pay plan, then invoke the code of conduct or prohibitions against intimidating behavior. Management reserves the right to blah blah blah etc, including modifying the pay plan. If the person is more "explosive" than that, if you are actually fearful of the upcoming exchange, you may want to consider having security visible to help contain that off the bat.
Thank you for your feedback. This employee has actually been completing a time sheet so all overtime has been paid. The issue is this employee is the only non-exempt who is paid on a salary basis and does not clock in. I have only been here a short time and upper leadership was not aware this employee was being paid on a salary basis and nothing is in the file to show when or why the change from hourly to salary occurred.
This employee is extremely resistant to change - demands to know the reasons behind the change and if the employee cannot understand it or, more importantly, agree with the reasons, becomes very insubordinate. Again, this employee is a sacred cow, and I have not been able to hold them accountable for their behavior.
The only reason for the change is that this employee has made some comments that make me nervous that if they was ever fired, I would expect a DOL audit stating we did not pay her for all time worked and I would only have thier timesheet to go on. She currently writes down her time on a timesheet each pay period and we pay her overtime if occurred. I would feel much more comfortable if she was clocking in/out to remove the possibility of a claim that she was not paid for hours worked.
I thought of going with "The decision has been made that all non exempt employees are to clock in/out, therefore we are changing your status from salary to hourly". The problem is when the employee asks "Why" how to respond without invoking insubordination. I really can't say that I don't trust them! I wish we had other non-exempt employees on a salary base so I can let them know that other employees are changing also but I don't - they are the only one. This person is also in a protected class.
This employee reports to me....
Thank you for your feedback. This employee has actually been completing a time sheet so all overtime has been paid. The issue is this employee is the only non-exempt who is paid on a salary basis and does not clock in. I have only been here a short time and upper leadership was not aware this employee was being paid on a salary basis and nothing is in the file to show when or why the change from hourly to salary occurred.
[/quote]
When you say "upper leadership", do you mean on the operational side, within finance, or in HR, or...?
[quote user="lwilley"]
This employee is extremely resistant to change - demands to know the reasons behind the change and if the employee cannot understand it or, more importantly, agree with the reasons, becomes very insubordinate. Again, this employee is a sacred cow, and I have not been able to hold them accountable for their behavior.
[/quote]
What makes this person a sacred cow? Strange protective behavior from your senior management? Special, impossible to find skill sets? Well positioned to be the sole owner of critical internal knowledge? Other?
[quote user="lwilley"]
The only reason for the change is that this employee has made some comments that make me nervous that if they was ever fired, I would expect a DOL audit stating we did not pay her for all time worked and I would only have thier timesheet to go on. She currently writes down her time on a timesheet each pay period and we pay her overtime if occurred. I would feel much more comfortable if she was clocking in/out to remove the possibility of a claim that she was not paid for hours worked.
[/quote]
A signed time sheet is as good a record as a time clock as long as it's complete and they cannot make the credible case that they were coerced into putting down hours different from those worked. She could equally well claim that she was told to clock out early and continue working, so using the time clock is really no cure here.
[quote user="lwilley"]
I thought of going with "The decision has been made that all non exempt employees are to clock in/out, therefore we are changing your status from salary to hourly". The problem is when the employee asks "Why" how to respond without invoking insubordination. I really can't say that I don't trust them! I wish we had other non-exempt employees on a salary base so I can let them know that other employees are changing also but I don't - they are the only one. This person is also in a protected class.
[/quote]
Protected class is irrelevent here unless there's something special going on here. It's pretty easy to make the case that the Company thinks it's a dumb idea to pay non-exempt work functions in an exempt manner plus overtime.
Because OT is a non-issue, you are free to lay it on the line. "Because every other non-exempt employee is paid precisely for the hours worked and no other. In talking to senior leadership, it turns out nobody was aware of this pay plan, it was not authorized, and none of us can think of a business reason for it to exist."
Insubordination typically means not doing what you're told, although many handbooks include variations on disrespect toward managers. This person can't engage in insubordination in terms of failing to do what they're told because they're not being told to do anything, they're being informed of a pay change. If this person is disrespectful toward you to an unacceptable degree, then use the discipline system. Of course, fleshing out the sacred cow bit will help me understand why this appears to you not to be an option at this point.
[quote user="lwilley"]
This employee reports to me....
[/quote]
Clearly she doesn't and that's something you need to take to your leaders if they are the ones bestowing sacred cow status on her. "I cannot have a team full of insubordinate (disrespectful) people taking actions not in the Company's best interest. My team, my decisions as to who is on it."