Time Keeping Question

DoubleR

One year ago we revised out attendance policy and assigned all nonexempt staff members to a shift on our KRONOS time keeping system so we could track tardies. As a health care provider the lunch hour for our nonexempt employees never falls at the exact same time each day i.e. no bells or whistles to signal lunch. While reviewing time keeping reports I have noticed on some EE's that the amount of time between when the EE clocks our for lunch and clocks back in from lunch varies from 21 to 35 minutes. It appears that the KRONOS system automatically deducts 30-minutes for lunch regardless of the actual amount of time the EE clocks out for lunch. Our system is set up with 7-minute rounding rules so I am not sure why the system deducts 30-minutes for those EE's that take 22-minutes or less for lunch. My concern is that this time keeping record creates a liability if one uses the standard that a lunch period must be 30-minutes in length to be unpaid. Even if one considers the rounding rules a lunch hour of 27 to 28 minutes could be overlooked but when the lunch hour is 21 to 22 minutes and the time keeping system decucts 30 minutes there appears to be a problem. At this point I have not observed whether the EE's who clock back in after 21 to 22 minutes begin to perform work or whether they loiter some where until their 30-minutes has expired. For those of you that use KRONOS have you had a similar experience? For others what is your experience in this area?

pork1

It reads to me like you need to get a quick briefing on your system and find out what the individuals are doing after clocking in. If you have an assembly line situation and some body blows a horn or some other mechanism to get the production line restarted thaere may be no problem with these employees. However, if these are clerical employees and they are back at their desk the company could be in dutch for some payouts. No one is going to report anything but you can bet they are marking their calendars with the exact time and what work they were doing for which the company never paid and the company will have nothing to prove otherwise. Short of locking the doors and not letting people back into the building until the majic hour marks the start time, what else can you do, but figure it out and pay everyone now and kick butt in the future?

PORK

Don D

We use the same Kronos system and have programmed the system to deduct a 30 minute lunch period. Our employees do not have to clock in and out for lunch but take a 30 minute deducted lunch.

CRS8383

Don is correct, the 30 min automatic deduction is a programing feature that you can turn on/off. I have used this feature in the past because we had such a short amount of time (30 min) employees were complaining about spending part of that time waiting in line to punch a clock. We didn't have a problem with people starting back to work early. With you having fluctuating lunch times you may want to consider turning that feature off and letting the time punches stand. If you are concerned about the rounding issues, you can change that in KRONOS as well. We round to the 10th of the hour.

System

Unless you want to pay a whole lot of people a whole lot of back pay for short lunch breaks, I suggest you require all non-exempts to stop working for at least 30 minutes during lunch. If they don't, you should write them up (and pay them for their lunch break, or make them go home early). xx(

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

pork1

I concur with James and have experienced the back pay with interest and penalties. The rule is very clear "meal breaks" are for no less than 30 minutes (of un-interrupted time for rest), but if you allow them to break from lunch and resume working, you must begin the after meal time of work.

A secretary or receptionist, who is allowed to sit at her/his desk and eatlunch, but then answers the telephone is back to work and she/he must restart the secretary's 30 minute sequence all over (she/he was interrupted and not in total control of her rest period). A machine operator who is allowed to return into the plant and start up his/her machine and producing anything or even pulling maintenance is working and his/her time must be started for the next sequence of work. Otherwise, you must send the machine operator back out and start a new "meal/rest break" of 30 minutes of un-interrupted time for rest, in order to with hold a non-paid meal break!

PORK