OT time, right after a vacation day

Sheila2008

We have offered OT for anyone who worked on Saturday.  Each employee should have had 40hrs or more for the week, before they qualified for the OT on Saturday.  We didn't have anything in writing regarding Saturday OT, because we have never offered it in the past.  One of our employees took a vacation day on Friday (which we are paying him the vacation time off) and then came to work on Saturday. Do I still pay him OT for Saturday, if he didn't work on Friday?

HRforME

[quote user="Sheila2008"]We have offered OT for anyone who worked on Saturday.  Each employee should have had 40hrs or more for the week, before they qualified for the OT on Saturday.  We didn't have anything in writing regarding Saturday OT, because we have never offered it in the past.  One of our employees took a vacation day on Friday (which we are paying him the vacation time off) and then came to work on Saturday. Do I still pay him OT for Saturday, if he didn't work on Friday?[/quote]

What state are you in?  What was your communication to employees? Did you caveat that they had to WORK 40 hours during the week to be eligible for the OT pay? Have the hours already been worked?  Some states don't allow "pay changes" retroactively, so if he went into the situation expecting OT based on the communications, he would need to be paid OT.

Personally, I would pay him OT this time and make sure to communicate it better next time, because federal (and most state) law doesn't require you to count non-worked but paid hours in the OT calculation.

 

Sheila2008

We are in California and yes, it was communicated verbally, but nothing in writing.....and he is expecting the OT now. 

regdunlop

vacation days aren't counted as hours worked for the purpose of OT.  the employee is still obviously paid for the time actually worked just not at the OT rate. you would want to make sure you didn't promise the employees the OT rate when you announced it.

IT HR

If it was communicated verbally that this was going to be OT then I say you should pay him OT.  I would then go back to your policy manual and any documents you have about the Saturday work and revise them to say OT granted only over 40 hours worked, otherwise paid at normal houly rate.