Time Clock Discrepancies

Fred

We have a problem with too many time clock discrepancies - employees not clocking in properly and having to make manual adjustments to their pay. We pay staff bi-weekly, every two weeks. Our Business Manager said she heard from a CEO speaking at a conference that it was "legal" to hold off paying for these discrepancies until the following pay period as a consequence for their actions, and to help expedite payroll for the current processing period.

It is true that the error is a staff mistake, but it doesn't seem that this practice would meet requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act?

Actually, we do ascertain the correct time via manual discrepancy reports from supervisors, but the process is pushing the envelop to the critical point in getting payroll processed timely for Friday paydays.

I think by postponing the corrections on discrepancies until the following P/E this will definitely improve staff clock-in/out behavior.

Any comments or guidance would be appreciated.

drehil

This is a good question. Our policy states the following:

"It is the employee’s responsibility to ensure that all punches are recorded properly on the punch clock system. Should you notice an error you should report it to your immediate supervisor for correction. Failure to punch in/out at any given time could result in errors in your pay.

Employees who discover an error in their pay (i.e. hours, deductions, etc.) should immediately notify the Human Resources Department. The error will be immediately reviewed for possible cause and remedied promptly."

I have had a few instances of errors, and if I am notified of the error prior to finalizing payroll, a correction is made. Yet if it is not reported in a timely manner, the correction waits until the next payroll. This procedure was put in place when I took over the HR department and if it's wrong I haven't been called out on it. I would like to hear the opinions from others as well.

Elizabetharess

We have the same problem here and our statement is similar to the other responder. What we can do and I know of one National chain that does this, is write employees up for missing "punches" as we call them. The discipline must be consistant.
Another thing we are moving towards is the department driven time clock which requires all time to be reviewed and corrected by the employee(s) and the supervisor/manager of that team must be the last to submit to HR/PR. This puts the responsibility on the managers and then things get done. We are also looking into the web driven time clocks which directly download into the payroll processing.
Good luck. It is a real pain making these adjustments time and again.
Elizabeth

HRVolley

I agree with Elizabeth. I am an HR Manager for a manufacturing company, with about 75 hourly employees, punching a timeclock. We have a similar policy that states the employees are responsible for informing their manager of any issues with the timeclock. Employees that have excessive "missed punches" are disciplined via our progressive discipline policy.
It works well for us.
HRVolley

Fred

FYI, I was able to talk to a DOL Representative from the Wage & Hour Division, and he told me that there is no clear guidance in the FLSA on this issue, but the DOL's position is that as long as any payroll corrections or adjustments are made by the next payroll period they will not fault the employer, and do not have a problem with this practice.