Exempt Employee Question
hrinmi
21 Posts
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-30-03 AT 10:07AM (CST)[/font][p]Our company gets paid bi-weekly, so a salaried exempt employee receives a paycheck for 80 hrs.
We have someone who called in sick, however, still had over 80 hrs in. Therefore there was no need to enter PTO time.
This supervisor does not get along with the employee and put the PTO time in for unknown reasons. Another issue in and of it self.
Question is, even though an exempt person called in sick, if they were already at the 80 hrs, is it legal for us to add an additional 8 of PTO time even though they are not compensated for it?
I'm new to HR in this company and it seems that they treat exempt salary employees like Hourly. They have to clock their time and if you work 100 hours one pay period and 78 the next pay period, you would be expected to use 2 hrs of vacation to get you back at 80 for that pay period.
We have someone who called in sick, however, still had over 80 hrs in. Therefore there was no need to enter PTO time.
This supervisor does not get along with the employee and put the PTO time in for unknown reasons. Another issue in and of it self.
Question is, even though an exempt person called in sick, if they were already at the 80 hrs, is it legal for us to add an additional 8 of PTO time even though they are not compensated for it?
I'm new to HR in this company and it seems that they treat exempt salary employees like Hourly. They have to clock their time and if you work 100 hours one pay period and 78 the next pay period, you would be expected to use 2 hrs of vacation to get you back at 80 for that pay period.
Comments
Under FLSA, the exempt employee's salary may be docked for a full day's absence due to illness or injury if the employer has a compensation mechanism to cover the salary that day for that type of absence (the employee just has to be sujbect to that mechanism: this could be paid sick leave or a disability policy, for example).
In short, since the emplyee called in ill, the docking of pay was appropriate. The use of PTO (which usually covers absences due to illness or injury) to cover the day's salary based upon the supervisor's authorization is consistent with FLSA but would be dependent more on what company policy permits on use of accrued time benefits without the employee's request.
Good luck!
The thing that seems to be forgotten when employers start doing this is that you are hiring an exempt employee to do a job, regardless of the amount of time it takes. Employers are reaping the benefits of having employees working 50-60 hour weeks without having to pay OT while at the same time "docking" employees vacation and/or PTO banks when they miss some time. If an employee puts in a 40+ hour week and wants to get out early on Friday, what is the harm? Exempt employees, in my opinion, have earned this small "fringe benefit" for getting the job done. Treat these employees as the professionals you have hired them to be and if you find that an exempt employee is not getting his/her job done, deal with it on a disciplinary level.
I'll get off my soapbox now - have a great day!
Unless PTO is restricted from use as a sick pay, there would be no reason the employee can't be docked for the full day's absence (I assume that's what it was when you say 8 hours). PTO means "Paid Time Off" and that usually covers the three major reasons an employee is off: illness, personal, vacation.
From your post, I asume you have no separate sick pay.
Requiring an emplyee to use 2 hours vacation or PTO as you describe to reach 80 is violative of FLSA if the exempt employee was not absent for the full day or was not on reduce FMLA leave.
If you want to be punitive about a couple of hours missing (for someone working an exempt position) then you must be punitive about a couple of hours worked over 40. Either the position is exempt or it is not. An employer/employee can't have it at one end of the clock and not the other.
No matter how many hours this exempt has worked during a week, when he takes a day off, his personal leave bank(s) can be charged with that day, assuming there IS a leave bank WITH A BALANCE. The exempt who calls in or comes in two hours late is to be paid as if present, according to the 'many or few' rule of FLSA. If this becomes a pattern you have an attendance/discipline issue, not a pay issue.
>day be docked as unpaid sick time?
How this company works if if a Salaried employee uses up all their PTO time, they take that away from next years bank. If it happens more then once, they write the person up.
If sounds as if the company wants to reap the rewards (not having to pay OT) without allowing the employees to do the same. Why are they keeping such rigid track of this time off? Is there a problem with employees not getting their job done?
I think someone should explain the entire concept of "exempt" to the managers and/or whoever is making these decisions. I once worked for a company that treated their exempt employees in the same manner and it really creates a morale problem when people are treated this way.
>day be docked as unpaid sick time?
If an employee is exempt then the employee must be paid their full salary every week, regardless of quantity or quality of work. IF you have a PTO bank, then the bank may be docked for one day increments. (some companies do dock for half days, but this is a FINE line and one my company chooses not to cross) If an exempt employee is sick/disabled and has no PTO remaining, then they must be paid their salary. If the exempt employee wants to take a day off for personal reasons and they have no PTO remaining, THEN the salary may be docked.
Think of it as what goes around, comes around. Many times, salaried employees will work over 40 hours per week and they will not receive OT compensation. However, the week that a salaried employee only works 35 hours, they must be paid their entire salary. The only time that partial day deductions are legal are for FMLA and they can be taken in smaller increments.
This is a hot legal topic and one your company probably needs to seek legal advice on because the lawsuits are rampant!!