Question on no exempt employee
nitewarrior
4 Posts
We have an hourly employee who is very good employee. Her habit is coming to work 15 minutes early everyday to open the office, amke sure walks are cleared ect. She also only takes half of her lunch hour. Time card only records 40 hours. Does this present a problem with Labor laws?
Comments
I agree with Kockler if she is working more than 40 hours per week. However, a lot of employers allow for some flexibility to allow for business needs. The original post implied that she was working more than 40 hours but didn't state it for sure.
It sounds like the morning routine is needed. Not sure about the short lunches. What we do to counteract the overtime is to allow that person to leave earlier and have someone else perform the closing afternoon routine. If you need her for both, then yes you will need to pay overtime for anything over 40 hours worked per week.
If a non-exempt employee performs labor off the clock and is un-compensated, your company has broken the law. There's no question about that. If the time worked pushes you into any state or federal OT requirements, that must be paid and there's no question about that, either.
The question is whether or not what the employee does before shift constitutes work for the employer. I believe that it does constitute work for the employer. Opening the building, clearing paths (cleaning) and perhaps whatever is involved in the et cetera portion all sound like things someone might do as part of their job.
You can read up on what the DOL has to say about how to remedy this situation, but I strongly recommend you speak with local counsel.