Intermittent/Exempt

cali_chavs

Exempt employee is on intermittent FML to care for his terminal ill father. Once a week, he works a half-day to take his father to the doctor. He has been using VAC time so far, but is almost out. I understand that under FLSA an exempt employee is paid for work and not time, but mgmt. is considering docking pay for these 1/2 days. I thought I read somewhere that you can dock pay for intermittent FML without jeopardizing exempt status. Is this true and how is the pay deduction calculated for 1/2 days?

Also, this employee has been asked to use up accrued VAC for these appts. Our policies require employees on FML to use up all accrued VAC while still counting time toward the 12 week requirement. Is this any different for intermittent FML? Can the 1/2 days he misses be counted toward his 12 weeks of FML even if he is using VAC?

Margaret Morford

Separate whether he gets the time off (FMLA) from how much of the leave is paid for (your company policy). If your policy says that employees are required to use any accrued vacation time (and personal time? and sick time?) during FMLA, then you can require him to run his bank out while counting it toward FMLA. When he runs out of benefit time, you must still give him the time off until he exhausts his FMLA, but intermittent FMLA is one of the few sitautions in which you are permitted to dock an exempt employee's pay without losing the exemption.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

cali_chavs

Thanks for replying Margaret. Do you know where I can find the legislation to back up the practice of docking pay while on intermittent FML?

cctsphr

I believe the information you are looking for can be found in FLSA Section 311 and Section 825.206 of the FMLA. Hope this helps. CT

Leslie

And what I try to do with exempts is dock pay by days, (in your case a half day per week) not hours. Guess it's not necessary, but I prefer working with the 60 days of FMLA instead of 480 hours when dealing with intermittent. And it makes me feel better....