Sick/personal days and overtime

smsbookkeeper · September 2004

I am the fiscal manager in a small CT public school system. Our past practice has been to compute overtime on the number of hours on the time sheet over 4o per week, regardless of whether one of those days was a sick or personal day. I would like to know if anyone else does this, or does everyone else use only hours actually worked for OT computation? Also, is there any statutary reference, either Federal or State (CT) to cover this?

After this being our past practice for so long, would it be possible to change? These are union employees. There is no Board of Ed policy on this. The union agreement states that "time and one-half shall be paid for all work performed in excess of forty hours in any one workweek."

I would appreciate any advice on this topic. (Sorry this is such a long question for my first time in the forum!)

Shadowfax · September 2004

I've been watching this for a couple of days to see what some of the colleagues say, those with perhaps more union experience than I, but what the hey, I'll at least give my opinion.
I was suprised some months ago when a similar question came up, at the number of e/ers who apparently pay o/t based on pto. But when a tax payer funded e/er pays that way I wonder who's watching the till. I do not know CT law, but there is no federal reg which requires o/t be paid for anything other than hours actually worked. As I understand it, that is all your CB requires as well. Your problem is that pp established you pay based on actual work plus pto. If you have been doing it for a long time, I would probably approach the union and seek some discussion. If it has been goning on a relatively short time, I might tell them things will be changing in 30 days. This will prompt them to come to you and seek the discussion. If you are near the end of the CB, I would give notice that ending the practice in conflict with the agreement will comence with the new agreement. If you have good financial reasons for implementing, then you probably have a pretty good case. But, you will never do it w/o some discussion, and probably a little grief from the union. The good news is, you can certainly insist at the next seeesion that it will be implemented, and then do it.

HR in PA · September 2004

We are a smaller financial institution and we too pay overtime on vacation, personal sick and holiday time.

Don D · October 2004

I see no reason to continue the practice. The law does not require it and the CBA actually says you will do it differently. I would send a notice to the union (send, as in a letter) with this type of language: "Effective November 1, 2004, XYZ will pay overtime in accordance with paragraph (B), page 16, Wages and Overtime, Collective Bargaining Agreement between the District and Teachers and Dunces United, as follows: (quote the CBA). Both the Fair Labor Standards Act and our collective bargaining agreement require only that overtime be paid for hours actually worked in excess of forty in a workweek."

tjp · October 2004

Hi, my advise is to always check with YOUR attorney concerning any changes you make in policy or payroll. Saying that, I can tell you that the FSLA does not require you to pay the overtime unless it is actual time worked. You may have a problem changing since you have been doing it this way. You can always pay more, but if you don't pay enough your in trouble with FSLA!

Dutch2 · October 2004

We are a non-union financial company and we pay OT for time worked only. We do not count non-productive work such as sick pay, vacation, holiday pay, etc. when we are counting total hours work to determine if OT should be paid.

Sick/personal days and overtime

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