paid my the minute

System

We have a policy at work (not in our policy manual)which is applied to all our shop employees: When an employee is 1 or more minutes late that employee will get docked for 15 min. - as of the 1st we are changing from 1 min to 3 min grace period. Does anyone know if this is ok to do. One person thinks this is ok as long as the rule is applied to everyone and another person thinks we need to pay everyone by the min.

????


Spoden

Hatchetman

I assume if the emplyee worked 1 minute beyond their quitting time, the comapny paid 15 minutes...and if it resulted in FLSA overtime, at time and a half. If you didn't do that prior to your recent change you may owe big on overtime or have to restore pay to the emplyees you improperly docked.

Under FLSA, what you were doing would probably be "illegal." FLSA expects rounding to the nearest unit of pay, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, quarter horus, what ever your pay unit is.

Thus rounding to the nearest unit should balance out.

Take a look at 29CFR785.48.

[url]http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/29cfr785_03.html[/url]

Don D

It is not legal to dock people the way you do.

System

I really did not think that this way legal to dock the way we are.

So if an employee is late 1-5 min. we can dock 5 min. 6-10 min. we can dock ten min., and 11-15 we can dock 15 min. etc.. Does that sound like more of a legal way to dock. That is what I am getting out of the 29cfr785.48

Thanks,

Spoden

cebudragonlady

It would be simpler and cheaper to pay for exact time worked, and less open to attack by lawyers - rather than go through all this rounding either up or down.

Chari

Hatchetman

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The most common way to do it for rounding purposes is tho the nearest unit of pay your payroll system issues.

So, if you pay for every quarter hour worked, then you would round to the nearest quarter hour (7 1/2 minutes is half way mark). If the employee came in 5 minutes late, you would round down and not dock pay. If the employee came in 10 minutes you would round up to the 15 minute mark and dock 15 minutes of pay.

If you pay on half hour basis, then round to the nearest half hour. If the employee came in late 10 minutes round down and not dock from the pay. If 40 minutes late then round up and dock the hour.

Remember, it cuts both ways. If the employee works 10 minutes past the quitting time, then you would round up to poayy 15 minutes; if the emplyee worked 5 minutes past the quitting time, then you would round down.

It's the balancing that is going to make the difference. It has to work both ways for it to be considerd acceptable to DOL...or you will be required to pay to the nearest minute. Perhaps your pay system already does that...but then you should also be paying to the nearest minute if the employee works past quitting time.

And if your policy is to dock 5 minutes of pay for tardiness of 3 to 5 minutes, then it needs to be your policy to pay 5 minutes pay for work of 3 to 5 minutes and if that results in overtime, then that is what has to be paid.

Don D

I would add that this discussion is only about methods of payment and how to calculate it in a satisfactory manner. There is a whole other discussion to be had about disciplining the individuals who put us through these gyrations in the first place. Although the employee, and some supervisors, might argue that "Well, you paid me for coming in late, how can you write me up?", that's not the issue. They are two separate issues. If your policy is to be on time, the slackers must be disciplined. If the law requires they be paid or not docked, that's another issue.

This is not in response to anyone's post and is not a reflection on anything anybody previously said, thought or retracted. It is simply an additional point I felt needed to be made.