Pay docking for exempt ee

shepworth · August 2005

In a training I was doing this morning in regards to exempt ees, I was corrected when I said you cannot deduct a full day's pay (or charge to personal/annual time)for 3 hours missed for a doctors appointment. Am I wrong & does anyone know where to find the direct ruling?
Thank you as always for your info...

crawfod · August 2005

The Department of Labor regulation 29 CFR 541.602(b)(1) deals with pay deductions pertaining to exempt employees. Your example was a little confusing in that you said you cannot deduct a full day's pay for 3 hours missed for a doctor's appointment. That implies the employee was present for work the rest of the day, so why would you consider deducting a FULL DAY'S PAY anyway? If the question is, can you deduct 3 hours pay due to the 3 hour absence, I would agree with you and say No, only if a full day or more is missed.

shepworth · August 2005

It was suppose to be 3 hours personal time with 3 hours docked... Sorry..that was turned around and confusing..

RT2 · August 2005

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-10-05 AT 08:04AM (CST)[/font][br][br]The Federal Employment Law Insider I just received includes a summary of DOL's Opinion Letter FLSA2005-7 on "How to apply partial-day-absences when making deductions from a paid-time-off leave bank" for exempts. You might check that out if the paid leave fits (It's early and I haven't had my caffeine yet, so I may not understand your question).

hrdir03nafcu · August 2005

The DOL opinion ltr referenced by by RT2, or the summary in provided in FELI, would be the best source on this.

The bottom line is that you may charge their accrued PTO or sick leave for the 3 hr absence. However, if they don't have leave accrued to cover it, you MAY NOT dock their pay for a partial day's absence when they worked part of the day. The ONLY case I know of where you could dock the salary of an exempt EE for less than 1 full day's absence is when they're taking a partial day's absence under their FMLA leave entitlement.

njjel · August 2005

that is absolutely correct HR

marc · August 2005

I must be losing what little is left of my mind.

I first asked a question about docking a full days pay for a three hour absence. The reply was an oops, he meant three hours docked for three hours pay.

I then replied that with a bona fide leave plan, it was OK to dock the leave banks for hours missed during the work week, but I wasn't sure of the rule when the leave banks reached zero.

Did these posts just disappear?

Brad Forrister · August 2005

No, this question was posted twice - once here, once under Wage & Hour. You responded to the latter.

You also asked this question there:
"I admit to being a bit unclear about what to do if the leave banks have been reduced to zero and additional time is taken, but my recollection is that you can still deduct when you have the bona fide plan."

I think the answer is that you can run the leave bank into the negative and recoup later, or you can discipline for running it into the negative, or just about anything EXCEPT deduct it from pay.

Brad Forrister
VP/Content
M. Lee Smith Publishers

Balloonman1 · August 2005

marc.........big brother is watching.....

My $0.02 worth,
The Balloonman

Pay docking for exempt ee

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