tardy
cbs
18 Posts
Is it legal to deduct up to one-hour of pay for tardiness?
Questions:
a) Is one hour the maximum time that can be deducted?
b) How many tardies should trigger the reduction in pay?
c) How should a "Company Handbook Tardiness Policy" be written to address deduction in pay if an employee is tardy without any excuse except oversleeping or his car will not start.
Questions:
a) Is one hour the maximum time that can be deducted?
b) How many tardies should trigger the reduction in pay?
c) How should a "Company Handbook Tardiness Policy" be written to address deduction in pay if an employee is tardy without any excuse except oversleeping or his car will not start.
Comments
Now, you could suspend the employee without pay for having too many lates. Or just start progressive discipline (oral warning, written warning, etc).
But not paying the employee for time worked causes all sorts of wage and hour problems.
Good Luck!
Tardiness by exempt employees should strictly be treated as a discplinary issue.
With non-exempt, you are only obligated to pay them for their time worked.
Cindy, I think it is a matter of semantics with the end result being the same; the employee is having wages taken out of his/her paycheck. Because a policy has been in place for a long time does not necessarily mean that it is legal. I agree with Theresa that employees must be paid for all work done. Tardiness should be addressed through a progressive disciplinary process and not by taking pay away from them. You might want to consider seeking legal counsel regarding your practice.
If I understand you correctly, an employee who is late will have his pay reduced 10% (instead of $15/hour his rate would be $13.50/hour) for a 2-week period. That is a "fine" of $120 over a 2-week span. The "fine" is even greater as the "discipline" process goes to 4 weeks, etc. That would pay an awful lot of union dues.
I believe that I would rethink that policy and go with a progressive discipline process that involves written warnings, suspension, then termination. A suspension without pay at the end stage would cost the employee about the same as the 2-week pay reduction ($15/hour X 8 hours/day = $120).
When an employee lodges a complaint (and it will only be a matter of time) this will trigger an audit and depending upon how long you have had this policy and how many people it has affected, you could be liable for a huge amount of money. They can go back 2 -3 years and if they find it a willful violation on the part of the employer, a fine will be in order.
It would be much better to put a disciplinary process in place that would not affect pay in any respect. Verbal, written, suspension,termination - if you want to structure your discipline in a progressive fashion, you could do it this way.
I've always had a strict "hands off" policy when it comes to tampering with an hourly employee's salary or a salaried person's time.
Correct?
- Deductions from Wages for Loss, Theft, Damage or Poor Workmanship
Employers may only make deductions from the wages of an employee for loss, theft, damage or faulty
workmanship under one of the following conditions.
The employee may authorize the deduction, in writing, after the problem occurs and before the deduction is
made.
A representative of the employee may determine that the employee was at fault and that the deduction may
be made or the employee may be found guilty or held liable in a court of competent jurisdiction.
An employer who makes a deduction without following one of these procedures may be held liable for twice
the amount of the deduction. Blanket authorizations are not valid. The employee’s written permission must be
obtained after each occurrence of a problem.
Plus you say its not enforced often. If its not consistently enforced and then one day you decide to enforce it and the employee happens to be in a protected class, I can't imagine how that would be a good situation.
On the other hand, I commend you for the way you have represented yourself in this thread without becoming defensive. I'd change your policy if it was me. Our organization had a discipline policy that included pay deductions when I first started here and it was one of the first things that I changed.
Paul
I also have to agree with Paul in that you have been a trooper in replying back to some of the responses that you have had to your question.
What I said was it does'nt happen to often. Not because I'm not following through with this policy but because the employees do not want a 10% reduction in pay so therefore employees are on time. We are consistent with all policies and with all employees. We do not discriminate.
We have good employees here. They do not walk around distrustful,get everything coming to me attitude nothing like that. All though every company does have some employee like that. Can not get away from it.
We used to be union. The employees voted the union out. Employees are treated fairly and with respect. We have a good group of people here and that have been here for many years and understand and except the policies. We have a open door policy here. Employees know that it lies on their shoulders to be here on time and if their not they suffer the consequences. I have had 2 employees this season that I had to take a 2 week 10% disciplinary reduction in pay. There reaction was I know, it was my own fault.
I will look into this situation further.
Thank You for your advise, opinion, expertise
We let our employees know by letter, Also when I am interviewing I let the candidates know about the policy right off the bat. It is also in our employee handbook.
If you would like to call the DOL the number that I called was 414-227-4384.
The employee has a verbal warning then a written warning stating if he/she is late again there will be a 2 week 10% disciplinary reduction in pay.
We are paid every 2 weeks.
I hope I explained it all right.
I, personally, like the policy. You reduce the employee's pay without granting them a unpaid 'vacation' which some employees don't mind when you get to the suspension level of discipline.
Hunter1 this is legal in the state of Wisconsin, and it works very well with our company.