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Deducting leave for partial-day absences

02/01/2007

Q. Recently, we audited our jobs and determined that some employees were classified as hourly when they should be exempt. We reclassified them. But now, I have a question about handling time off for our newly exempt employees. By law, are we required to NOT charge an exempt person’s time if they’re out of the office for a half day? And if we do start charging an exempt person’s time (vacation or personal) if they miss an hour or two, are we setting ourselves up to be sued?

Can we require salaried staff to make up lost time?

02/01/2007

Q. We’re a small company (fewer than 20 employees) and don’t keep time sheets. Our entire staff is salaried. We expect employees to make up personal time and sick time (neither of which affects their vacation time or holiday time). Are we wrong to expect that if a salaried employee takes two hours for a doctor’s appointment, he or she should make up that time later? —M.V., Florida

Deducting partial-day absence from leave bank is OK

02/01/2007

You may assume that employers must pay exempt employees their entire salary even if they arrive late and leave early. Well, that’s only partially true …

Lessons from Wal-Mart’s employment-law missteps

02/01/2007

Wal-Mart bashing may be the new spectator sport in America, but the nation’s largest retailer is slowly learning some important lessons from a series of legal setbacks involving time and attendance records and managers’ misguided efforts at cost control …

North Carolina Leave Laws

02/01/2007

Besides complying with the federal FMLA, North Carolina employers must abide by the state’s leave laws on school visitation and jury duty. Employees who are parents or guardians may take up to four hours per year of unpaid leave to attend or participate in their children’s school activities. And it’s illegal for employers to punish employees who are summoned for jury duty or as witnesses in court …

Indiana Law on Jury and Witness Leave

02/01/2007

Indiana employers can’t punish employees who are summoned to serve as jurors or witnesses in court. Even though you needn’t pay employees for jury duty, you can’t force them to use annual, vacation or sick leave during that time off …

Texas Law on Employment Discrimination for Participating in Emergency Evacuation

01/15/2007

Anyone who has lived through a rough hurricane season in Texas understands the disruption that an emergency evacuation creates. Such evacuations and subsequent returns cause real hardships for employers. But employees who evacuate their homes and jobs are protected from discriminatory employment actions due to the Texas law on Employment Discrimination for Participating in Emergency Evacuation …

Georgia Code on Jury Duty Leave

01/15/2007

Georgia state law prohibits employers from penalizing employees for missing work to appear in court for jury duty or as a witness or to answer a summons or subpoena …

Pennsylvania Law on Jury Duty

01/15/2007

Because Pennsylvania takes jury duty seriously, the legislature passed a law prohibiting most employers from retaliating against or punishing employees who become jurors. The law doesn’t require employers to compensate employees for jury duty, but it clearly states that employers can’t interfere with employees’ fulfillment of their civic duty …

New Jersey Family Leave Act

01/15/2007

The New Jersey Family Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave every 24 months for employees of any New Jersey company that has 50 or more employees anywhere worldwide. The law covers employees if they’ve worked for their organization for at least one year and clocked at least 1,000 hours during the preceding 12 months …