Partial vacation days for exempt employees
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I'm sure this has been discussed already, but if you can give me the benefit of your advice, I would be grateful. We are a service industry, have offices in 12 states and have been trying to break the habit of exempt employee's recording partial vacation days. Several members of our executive committee (a policy setting group) are not convinced that allowing exempt employees to record partial vacation days runs the risk of jepardizing the exemption status. We want benefit time to be recorded in whole day increments. Exempt employees who take a half day off simply work a short day and no benefit time should be recorded. This shouldn't be an issue since most exempt employees work more than 8 hours most days. The people questioning this are using the logic "I've been in the business for 28 years and we've always recorded partial vacation days."
Thanks in advance for your wisdom.
Thanks in advance for your wisdom.
Comments
I know this is common, but our Counsel is never fond of using "common practice" as her guide. I'm caught between legal and the executive committee on this one.
I'll be the first to tell you that my opinion has no foundation in legal training. My understanding is that 29 CFR is addressing DEDUCTIONS from one's pay, not the charging of the time to an ee's vacation bank. I don't consider that a deduction since the ee is being paid for the time missed. Maybe our learned Forum attorneys can weigh in with the bottom line. I do not think that you will find it unlawful to charge time off in increments of half-day vacation time.
>Police x:=| ", putting forms and post-it-notes on desks advising
>people to complete the paperwork.
Don--
Just wanted you to know you made my day! I've been increasingly frustrated with people who take sick days or vacation without submitting the paperwork so I can account for it--and frustrated with their supervisors for allowing them to do that. Just knowing I'm not the only one with this problem made me feel better. [By the way, maybe it's not totally PC, but I've been referring to myself as the benefits Gestapo!]
Most of our Exempt employees do work more than the normal 8 hours in a day. We also work summer hours in which we only work 1/2 days on Friday. While our non-exempt employees get to use 4 hours of vacation our salaried employees must use 1 day. This seems to set well with the Non-Exempt employees not feeling like the salaried employees are getting away with something.
Our biggest offender of leaving early is an HR person. GO FIGURE!!
>located in only one of them. Therefore the other 4 outlying offices
>tend to "bend the rules" and get away with all types of things.
>Geesh!
The principal can't be in every classroom at the same time. But, the teacher is responsible for enforcing the no-spitball rule. Aren't there responsible, mature staff on board at each location who set the conduct example and the example and standard for following policies?
Are the 40.0 hour people getting their work done?
We encourage our employees to leave at 40 if their work is completed. No one is going to engrave on a tombstone that they worked more than 40 hours a week. If they get the job done, I would praise them. It gives me comfort knowing that our employees are using their time wisely and not spending an extra hour a day sitting at their desk reading the paper so that I think that they are working late.
If they come in and work for more than 4 hours, they are not charged. If they come in and work less than 4 hours, they do get charged. We do not touch their pay in less than full day increments when they have exhausted the paid time off.