Exempt 15-Minute Rule
Watson
47 Posts
At a seminar I attended, the instructor, a Tennessee attorney, stated that an exempt employee need only work 15 minutes in a work day and we must pay them for a full day. The instructor said also that we could require that the employee make up the remaining 7.75 hours for the day with personal leave time as long as the employee had the time and this was the company policy. If the employee used up all their time, we'd still have to pay them. A company supervisor found out about the 15-minute rule and told several of his employees, all of which now come in for 15 minutes, check their e-mail and voice mails, then leave for the day, charging their time to company overhead or projects. They never claim any vacation. These are the same employees that complain at the end of the year that we didn't give them a chance to use all of their vacation! Can we require them to use vacation when they're only working 15 minutes per day as long as they have the time to claim?
Comments
Are they fulfilling their job requirements satisfactorily? If not, then you should consider discipline based upon unsatisfactory job performance. Does their absence affect others negatively? Do other employees/departments/customers/vendors generally rely on these individuals to be at work during traditional business hours, in order for them (the other employees/departments/customers/vendors) to do their job? If so, then you may want to make being at work during business hours an essential job function.
This is an obvious abuse of the exemption rules. I've more often dealt with people leaving 15-20-or 30 minutes early with frequency. Simply working 15 minutes for a full day of pay seems absurd, and certainly something should be done. I believe a bill for a consultation with an attorney specializing in employment law (with an expertise in wage and hour would be even better) would be well worth it! If you do seek professional legal advice, please let us know their advice!
Bottom-line is get HR and PAYROLL out of the discipline system don't take on the responsibility of overwatch of any employee. Set the policy and hold management/supervisor's "feet to the fire". That is what they get paid to do! Pork
I would tend to think this would end up being a performance issue and should be addressed as such.
>in a jam with the situation since their supervisor took it upon
>himself to tell these people that all the company could require of
>them is around 15 minutes a day!
Watson: Let's not rush to beat up the supervisor. I wonder if he didn't get the information from the person who attended the conference in the first place? No, you cannot so tightly state the requirements of exempt employee's jobs, specifically hours and time required for them to accomplish their jobs, without fully jeopardizing their exempt status, thus causing the company potential claims for their overtime when their status is challenged. A frank discussion with them about expectations is one thing.....putting in writing some iron clad and potentially illegal requirements is another. Good luck. x:-)