Attendance Issues for Management

Johana 1 · February 2003

Our company provides 3 personal days and 1 week of vacation time after a year. We don't have a system in place to keep exempt attendance. This is not a problem for must of the employees. However, we have mayor problems with someof them. Also we have 2 cultures here the plant managers/supervisors and the office people. If an exempt employee miss a day for sick reason we do not deduct their pay or take it from vacation etc. I already know the best way to handle this issue is to deduct from personal or vacation if they are out. Once they are done with vacation and personal we will deduct from their checks. However, it is not that easy here. We are a manufacturing plant and most of our supervisors in the plant work 14 hours day not like the office people.
I would like to have a sign on sheet for every exempt employee. They just need to initial their name each day by the end of the week ( of course no time keeping,just attendance). Then I would like to take the approach of corrective action instead of deducting their checks. If the employee is abusing the system that employee will have a write up and next time they are out sick the day will be deducted from his/her check. Do you see a problem with this? I don't want to penalize the entire plan for few employees. I don't want the morale to go down ( they already work TONS of hours) I just don't want the offenders to get away with it.

Rockie · February 2003

Yes, there is a major problem with doing this. You cannot legally deduct from an exempt level employee's paycheck if they work any portion of a week. You are effectively "tracking" their hours and this takes away their exempt level status. If one of them files a DOL complaint, your company will be liable for overtime for the "tons of extra hours" they have worked.

If this is a case of employees not getting their jobs done, this should be addressed in a disciplinary manner, but not through deduction from paychecks. If these employees are violating policies, this should be addressed, but not the number of hours they work.

Balloonman · February 2003

"Don't make rules that effect all to try and correct few." My words of wisdom for the day. Heck I might as well go home now! x:-) You are on the right path with approaching this as a performance/discipline issue, and address it with them individually. Hard for a supervisor to be an effective leader if they have an attendance problem.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

LindaS · February 2003

I agree with Rockie. When you are hiring an exempt level employee, you are hiring them to do a job regardless of the amount of hours it takes them to do it. Not only is it illegal to deduct from an exempt employee's check (with a few limited exceptions), it also brings down the morale of that employee along with others in the same classification. You as the employer, cannot take advantage of the perks of exempt employees (working TONS of hours without having to pay overtime) and then treat them as hourly workers when they need time off.

If you are having problems with an employee not getting the job done, deal with that issue, not the amount of hours they work.

MarieA · February 2003

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-19-03 AT 09:26AM (CST)[/font][p]The deduction is legal if you have a bona-fied time off policy in place and they have used up their allotted days. Of course, you risk a morale problem if you do. Normally I use corrective action if the employee regularly works more than 40 hours a week.

Mentel · February 2003

Rocky is right about the hours. To keep them exempt, DO NOT DEDUCT! Also, here is the issue of how many hours your supervisors work and their benefits. Three personal days (I am assuming for sick, personal business) and one week of vacation after one year of service is very stingy for people who work 12 to 14 hours per day. How about giving them some sick time or add to the personal time? This group is 'special' because of their work requirements. Why don't you treat them a little more special?

Johana 1 · February 2003

Mentel you are right. Last night I was thinking about approaching the President with the idea of increasing personal time or adding some sick time.
Rockie I believe you are 1/2 right. We have a policy of personal and vacation time. I understand that you can’t deduct the day regardless of the hours worked for that day. But if an exempt employee used all vacation and personal days and is out sick one day I can deduct that day from his check. If you look at the Code of Federal Regulations [Title 29, Volume 3, Parts 500 to 899]you can see that.
I would like to share another idea. How about if in their anniversary date instead of an increase in pay we provide a bonus program. Example: Joe makes $500 a week right now. Once his anniversary date hits we keep him at $500 a week and a $2000 bonus per year (that we will pay in a weekly basis). If Joe miss one day that week we deduct ½ the bonus, if he misses 2 days he will miss his entire bonus for the week.
However the best policy to me is the corrective action. But any other ideas are most appreciated. Thanks

Attendance Issues for Management

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