Exempt 15-Minute Rule

Watson · February 2003

At a seminar I attended, the instructor, a Tennessee attorney, stated that an exempt employee need only work 15 minutes in a work day and we must pay them for a full day. The instructor said also that we could require that the employee make up the remaining 7.75 hours for the day with personal leave time as long as the employee had the time and this was the company policy. If the employee used up all their time, we'd still have to pay them. A company supervisor found out about the 15-minute rule and told several of his employees, all of which now come in for 15 minutes, check their e-mail and voice mails, then leave for the day, charging their time to company overhead or projects. They never claim any vacation. These are the same employees that complain at the end of the year that we didn't give them a chance to use all of their vacation! Can we require them to use vacation when they're only working 15 minutes per day as long as they have the time to claim?

sandra_d · February 2003

I'm not in TN, so don't know if you have state laws that apply, but we do generally require exempt employees to use PTO to bring them to 8 in a day, and I don't believe the FLSA prohibits it (so long as you don't make deductions when their leave is exhausted). However, most of our employees need to be at work in order to complete their job tasks. You didn't mention what jobs these employees hold, and whether it is reasonable to believe they may actually be working when they leave the office.

Are they fulfilling their job requirements satisfactorily? If not, then you should consider discipline based upon unsatisfactory job performance. Does their absence affect others negatively? Do other employees/departments/customers/vendors generally rely on these individuals to be at work during traditional business hours, in order for them (the other employees/departments/customers/vendors) to do their job? If so, then you may want to make being at work during business hours an essential job function.

This is an obvious abuse of the exemption rules. I've more often dealt with people leaving 15-20-or 30 minutes early with frequency. Simply working 15 minutes for a full day of pay seems absurd, and certainly something should be done. I believe a bill for a consultation with an attorney specializing in employment law (with an expertise in wage and hour would be even better) would be well worth it! If you do seek professional legal advice, please let us know their advice!

Pork · February 2003

Watson: It reads to me as if your organization has a management issue rather than a time clock and pay issue. As exempt ees, they must turn out the work required or be disciplined for failure to produce. Your company has every right to charge the time off to vacation time unless it was approved by the managmnet/supervisor/director or what ever! I would be looking to reduce the staff, if we don't have a need to be at work accomplishing work! But then, who is to say that my brain is not working, and as long as my fingers are satisfying the company's need for paperwork to show production to sustain my salary and position, I'm OK WITH MY TIME ON SITE. There are many salaried employees in the education of higher learning who teach one course a day and think about it the rest of the day for several months and they continue to accumalate sick and vacation time.

Bottom-line is get HR and PAYROLL out of the discipline system don't take on the responsibility of overwatch of any employee. Set the policy and hold management/supervisor's "feet to the fire". That is what they get paid to do! Pork

Rockie · February 2003

Never have I heard of a 15 minute rule in dealing with exempt individuals. I've only heard if an exempt employee works any part of a week, they are not docked their pay. We don't charge exempt individuals PTO time if they work any portion of a day....but we don't have any exempt employees abusing this They would never be able to get their work done if they did this on a routine basis.

I would tend to think this would end up being a performance issue and should be addressed as such.

Don D · February 2003

I think the poster took too literally what the 'Tennessee Attorney' said. What he probably said was something like, "I don't care if the ee works only 15 minutes during the day, that's still a day worked". That was no literal interpretation of any labor law that I've ever heard of either. Every minute you spend not calling these guys into a staff meeting is time wasted. As my college football coach used to say, "Boys, we're fixin' to have a come to Jesus meeting 'bout this! And if you don't wanta come to it, yonders the gate."

Watson · February 2003

15, 10, 5 minutes, whatever. The bottom line is, if we have employees who come in and work less than an hour a day, are we going to be okay with the Labor Board if our company policy states that exempt personnel will be paid for 40 hours per week; however, if they come to work and work less than 8 hours in a given day, they must supplement the time worked with personal leave to total 8 hours each day. Once all personal leave is extinguished, we will evaluate the employee's work and whether we need that employee. I agree with most of you that this is more of an employee problem as it is anything else, but we're in a jam with the situation since their supervisor took it upon himself to tell these people that all the company could require of them is around 15 minutes a day!

Don D · February 2003

but we're
>in a jam with the situation since their supervisor took it upon
>himself to tell these people that all the company could require of
>them is around 15 minutes a day!

Watson: Let's not rush to beat up the supervisor. I wonder if he didn't get the information from the person who attended the conference in the first place? No, you cannot so tightly state the requirements of exempt employee's jobs, specifically hours and time required for them to accomplish their jobs, without fully jeopardizing their exempt status, thus causing the company potential claims for their overtime when their status is challenged. A frank discussion with them about expectations is one thing.....putting in writing some iron clad and potentially illegal requirements is another. Good luck. x:-)

Exempt 15-Minute Rule

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