reducing hours of non-exempt

cudakid

I have an employee that works just shy of 40 hrs. To prevent her from working overtime, "time card creep", I have her scheduled for 35 hours. She believes that I cannot do this without laying her off. She is a "full time" employee.

I live in Alabama

amwkim

What is you definition of "full-time" in your handbook? At 35 hours, is she still eligible for benefits? Is her pay being reduced?

Is the purpose just to ensure she doesn't work overtime? If so, can she be moved to exempt status?

marc

Exempt status is based on an analysis of a job description, not to prevent someone from working overtime.

Why not enlist the EEs help in preventing OT. If you do not have a policy requiring OT to be approved in advance - write one. Then OT should not happen without approval. If it does, you still must pay it, but then you can discipline the EE for not following your policy.

I beleive you can reduce hours to 35 without laying her off.

Hunter1

Unless you have some kind of contract with the employee or are subject to a union labor agreement, the employER is always in charge of hours worked. If hours are cut enough, the employee may be eligible for partial unemployment comp, but as the employer, you're in charge of hours. If the employee works hours that aren't approved, you need to handle it as a disciplinary matter.