Department of Wage and Hour Complaint Against Me

problemchild

My reps are normally scheduled for an 8 hour work day, however this year they have been working 9 to 11 hour work days, if they have a migraine or take FMLA on that day I have been docking them for the hours that they have missed including the overtime, now they have called the dept of wage and hour on me. Can I get in trouble for this? They are allowed 480 hours, why should I have to give them more time than that? The reps are saying if I count off for overtime I have to grant them more FMLA time? Am I liable if this is correct or is the Company liable for this? What is the punishment for something like this? I am concerned.

Down_the_Middle

Can you tell us what the "complaint" is? Is this a loss of overtime pay issue? or FMLA time w/o pay????

problemchild

The complaint is that they are not getting the full 12 weeks (even though they are getting the ful 480 hours) They believe they should get the full 12 week period even if the hourly period would run into say 600 hours (12 weeks of 40 hours + 10 hours of overtime each weeks)

Down_the_Middle

Their complaint may have merit if I understand your position. FMLA requires up to 12 administrative workweeks (12 times the avg number of regularly scheduled hours worked). If the employees are consistently working > 40 hrs per week and this becomes their regularly scheduled number of hours, you'll be hard pressed to limit them to only 480 hours for FMLA. The crux of the issue falls in the definition of "regularly scheduled hours" and this will likely govern the interpretation of the W/H investigators. It may be a small price to pay to enable you to continue paying overtime w/o having to add additional staff to your payroll. Good luck