Docking a Salaried Employees Pay
mav
5 Posts
I have always understood that if a salaried employee cannot report to work because the employer closes the building for severe weather or a hurricane like Irene, the salaried employee still gets paid. The question is do they have to use their vacation time to get paid. Or do they just get paid their salary? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Comments
From a federal perspective, there is no problem with forcing people to use vacation or PTO. Therefore, if you close for inclement weather, you can charge exempt employees' PTO banks. However, if an exempt employee has insufficient PTO available to cover the day, you still have to pay them their salary. The only exception is if the closure is for an entire week, usually meaning either a calendar week or a payroll week if your payroll is on off cycles: you'd have to check with an attorney to see what your federal judicial circuit thinks about payroll weeks versus calendar weeks for FLSA purposes.
As far as federal law is concerned, whether you charge PTO is a matter of policy.
However, states do have laws governing paid leave banks and your ability to require use of paid time off will be subject to them.
It was two full days of closure. I have two concerns.
1) We do not have PTO, we have vacation time, sick time and personal time. All three are addressed in the employee handbook and have rules associated with them. Sick time is the issue here. Some employees have only sick time left as they are required to use all vacation before a blackout period, or lose it. Sick time rules state that it can be used only for sickness. So can we now ignore that policy and deduct time from the employees banks to cover these two days?
2) During this two day closure, employees were instructed through our employee website and our emergency phone number to check every hour for updates. Were they essentially on call?
Thanks again.
It was two full days of closure. I have two concerns.
1) We do not have PTO, we have vacation time, sick time and personal time. All three are addressed in the employee handbook and have rules associated with them. Sick time is the issue here. Some employees have only sick time left as they are required to use all vacation before a blackout period, or lose it. Sick time rules state that it can be used only for sickness. So can we now ignore that policy and deduct time from the employees banks to cover these two days?
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Here's a path to thinking about your policies that should help you arrive at an answer.
Do your rules permit the employer to force vacation use or say the employer cannot or will not force vacation use?
Why would you make an exception for sick time? Would you want to make a habit of using sick time to pay for weather closures in the future? Does your handbook specify that policy statements are broad, intended to be interpreted broadly to give management discretion to address a wide range of workplace issues? Does your handbook reserve the right to modify policies on the fly?
[quote user="mav"]
2) During this two day closure, employees were instructed through our employee website and our emergency phone number to check every hour for updates. Were they essentially on call?
Thanks again.
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That one is harder. The issue is whether your employees were waiting to be engaged or engaged to wait. In the latter situation, they must be paid. The issue is whether they were able to do as they wished with their time. If yes, then they weren't on call. If they were required to check in every hour or if they were required to be ready to come to work on a moment's notice, then they were probably on call and you would have to pay them, but not necessarily at their normal rate.
Does anyone know if when a person is salary and has been paid for the last 10 years the same amount, they can change the ending payroll date and short you a day on your pay. So that at the end of the year, I will be one day short from my guaranteed salary rate. They changed the hourly employees to cut off on a earlier day and they are thinking that the same rules apply to the salary. I don't see how they can short me 1 day this year when I have worked with them for over 10 years and made the same thing on my W2 every year and after this year make the same, but this year cutting me one day? Does not make sense nor does it seem legal. Please help with any knowledge of the matter. Thanks so much