HELP! Exempt emp. reduced her hours to PT
abenz
1 Post
An exempt employee went out on maternity leave and when she came back from leave she requested to only work 4 days a week for a total of 32 hours. She has been asked to keep track of her hours and she is not being paid on a salary basis. I am guessing she has lost her exempt status and now is going to have to be treated as a non-exempt employee. Please offer some insight into this situation.
Comments
If you have found that the job duties have not lessened and that the job is really exempt, you will need to go back and compensate the employee for any reduction in pay that you have made. Make sure to get with your corporate attorney and have them draft a waiver for the employee to sign stating that in exchange for the enclosed compensation, the employee waives their right to sue under the PDA, FLSA (and any other laundry list of laws that the attorney feels is relevant).
Good Luck.
Sounds like mom has been released for return to work, but wants to spend more time with baby. How does that valid personal decision impact the business?
If job duties are truly exempt, consider prorating the "salary" in line with the reduced schedule? Can the office continue to operate efficiently by redesignating a full-time exempt position? If former duties must be realigned, the position may need to be re-evaluated.
Beware establishing a precedent by accommodating one particular employee.
I would tend to think that if the 32 hour schedule is a permanent change from the 40 hour week, a renegotiation of salary base is in order. In our organization, the exempt salaries are set with an estimated "regular" hourly week in mind. Some are 40 hour office/admin people, some are 50-60 with evening and weekend on-call work required. When these positions are filled, the amount of estimated hours per week go into the salary calculation. Under these circumstances, if we decided to allow someone reduced hours, we would renegotiate the salary to a proportionate rate.
I would not ask for "timesheets" if you intend to keep the exempt status. Having the employee keep track of time is a danger to the status. I would just renegotiate the salary with the intention of reduced hours.
No brainer, until she is ready to come back into the exempt status and return to her normal duties, supervising and/or making company decisions about how the business is operated from day to day. When this happens, now you have to decide is she exempt or non-exempt? Next question is: was she always a non-exempt and will there be concerns for the many long hours over 40 that were not paid overtime for which the company has no record, but know she has her own diary ( or can make one up) to prove she is owed back wages?
You should really look into her position before all this started, Was it truly exempt? Been there and done that, there is a snake coiled and ready to strike here! Good luck