Exempt ees
judy matt
33 Posts
Hello all! My question today relates to exempt employees. Does anyone know about the restrictions with regard to suspension to exempt ees? Can we suspend them for a full week? Also, if the suspension occurs during the day, do we have to pay them for the whole day? Are there any restrictions to dicipline with exemptees?
Please rush replies, my boss is a hurring kind! Thanks Thanks many times over to you guys.
Judy in Covington, LA
Please rush replies, my boss is a hurring kind! Thanks Thanks many times over to you guys.
Judy in Covington, LA
Comments
The particular regulation addressing suspensions without pay in the upcoming regs is 541.602(b)(5);
"Deductions from pay of exempt employees may be made for unpaid disciplinary suspensions of one or more full days imposed in good faith for infractions of workplace conduct rules. Such suspensions must be imposed pursuant to a written policy applicable to all employees. Thus, for example, an employer may suspend an exempt employee without pay for three days for violating a generally applicable written policy prohibiting sexual harassment. Similarly, an employer may suspend an exempt employee without pay for twelve days for violating a generally applicable written policy prohibiting workplace violence."
From the wording you can see that suspensions of less than a week's basis may only be done for violations of written workplace rules, not for performance, that are applicable to all employees. At this point, I don't know if these would have to be signficant rules, such as the workplace violence rule or sexual harassment rule, as suggested by the provision, or whether it can be any written rule, such as for repeated tardiness, that would be applicable to all employees.
Remember this provision is NOT YET effective.
The current FLSA regulation, as Don notes, only permits suspensions without pay for less than a full work week for violations of major safety rules.
While the current regulation at 29CFR541.118(a)(5) ONLY identifes supsensions without pay for major safety rule violations, employers get around this to suspend emplyees for other infractions in full work week increments because the regulation also provides that in any work week in which the exempt salaried employee performs no work at all, he or she does not have to be paid. So, if the employer suspends a salaried, exempt employee for a full work week for tardiness so he performs no work at all during the week, then he doesn't have to be paid, even though he didn't violate a major safety
rule. 118(a)(5) will remain in the new regulations, as 541.602(b)(4).
A preschool director violated a Field Trip policy by allowing a child to attend an off-site field trip, and the child did not meet the minimum developmental requirements for the trip. (swimming) There was no incident, but the director's failure to follow policy placed the child in a potentially unsafe situation.
I went to 29 CFR 541.118 and am having a hard time translating this to the childcare industry.(5) Penalties imposed in good faith for infractions of safety rules of major significance will not affect the employee's salaried status. Safety rules of major significance include only those relating to the
prevention of serious danger to the plant, or other employees, such as rules prohibiting smoking in explosive plants, oil refineries, and coal mines.
We are considering unpaid suspension for the Director (exempt) who made the decision to allow the child to go on the swim field trip. Does placing a child in an unsafe situation qualify for suspension of less than one week due to violation of major safety rule? Is the child part of our "plant" since the child is our "property" during this time?
Looking for help with interpretation.
Thanks!
Can you check with your attorney? If not, I personally would feel safe going forward with the suspension. You are imposing it in good faith and while the examples provided do not readily generalize, to me, this was a major violation.
We just had a child drown at one of our local pools..couldn't swim. It has been devastating for all. My answer may be emotionally influenced a result.
We ended up imposing two days unpaid suspension.
The director had the appropriate attitude: after drying her eyes, she said this will never happen again. She also said she will be sure to listen to "that little voice" and call her supervisor for advice next time she's contemplating bending the rules.
Hope this helps you respond to your boss! Just remember, "if one wants it bad they are probably going to get it BAD"!
PORK
Pork et al. . I understood that currently you CAN suspend less than one week IF it is a major safety violation ??
The nice thing about the new regs is you will be able to suspend less than one week even if it is not safety related.
is this correct or am I losing my mind . . .again??
The Forum software had a screw loose and started putting someone else's name at the top of pork1's messages. So I deleted the computer-generated text, rather than asking Pork to fix our computer's mistake. Since the text was accidentally written by a Forum malfunction and not by Pork, I knew he wouldn't mind.
I've only done this a couple of times before, for technical reasons. But we'd never edit or partially delete text that was written by a Forumite. That would be like misquoting them or putting words in their mouth. So that's why you've never seen it before.
James Sokolowski
HRhero.com
I think it's also quite possible that James has taken a summer job on the hog farm. Sort of a field trip into the real world, as it were. But don't try to wear them britches back across the Brentwood line.
As I said, we'd never edit or partially delete words written by a Forumite. I think we discussed this on the Forum last year. Someone suggested that when there's an inappropriate post, the moderators could simply delete the inappropriate part and leave the rest of the post. But we won't do that because it would change the meaning of the post, like misquoting the person or putting words in their mouth.
James Sokolowski
HRhero.com
Anne Williams
Attorney Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers, LLC