Answers to tricky HR questions: Paying unauthorized OT
May 14, 2008 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Answers to tricky HR questions, Employment law, Exempt non-exempt, FLSA, Latest News & Views, Money, Pay and benefits, Records documentation, policies
Our team of experts fields real-life, everyday questions from HR managers and gives practical answers that can be applied by any HR pro in the same situation. Today’s question: What happens when an employee works overtime without getting the OK to do so?
Question:
We have told our employees that overtime must be pre-approved. However, we still have some people who get in early or stay a little late each day, amounting to an hour or two of overtime per week.
Under FLSA, can we avoid paying overtime in those situations if employees didn’t get it pre-approved?
Answer:
If employees work overtime, they must be paid for overtime, even if the overtime is unapproved and against company policy, according to Jane Dalton, an employment lawyer at Duane Morris LLP.
She suggests that you:
1. Reannounce your policy. Warn employees they will be disciplined up to and including discharge for violating the policy that overtime is not to be worked unless it is approved in advance. Then have supervisors follow through with discipline for infractions.
2. Instruct supervisors to keep track of time worked. If someone comes in early or leaves late and is working during that time, the supervisor can reduce the hours later in the same week. Otherwise overtime must be paid.
Tags: duane morris, FLSA, ot, overtime
May 16th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
The company I work for pays overtime for any time over 8 hours in a day, regardless of total hours in a week. I often see employees with 5-10 minutes a day either before or after their shift. The supervisors have reported to me that they are “chatting” and not working. Do we still have to pay overtime for this?
May 19th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Have in your rules and regulations that all overtime must be approved in advance by management.
If the manager did not approve their “15 minute” chat you may still have to pay them to avoid DOL but you can discipline them for working overtime without pre-approval.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
It is a perfectly legal practice to “round” time (either in or out – but not both). Most electronic time keeping systems have programming capabilities where the clock will automatically “round” to the nearest 15 minutes in the morning or back to the nearest 15 minutes in the afternoon. The reason you can’t do both is all of the “benefit” of rounding shouldn’t be for the company. You could round on the front end and pay actual time in the afternoon. In a union enviroment this may not work.
The other more important issue is making sure your employees understand your pay policies and that you expect they work until X:XX pm before heading to the time clock for the end of the day.
July 20th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Regarding I-9 Forms. Does a Resident Alien or someone that is not a US Citizen get Social Security Cards or do they have to wait until they are citizens to obtain a Social Security Card? Thank you.