The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal law which requires that most employees in the United States be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime at time and one-half the regular rate of pay, or provide compensatory time-off in the case of government employees, for all hours worked over 40 hours in a work week.
UNG’s workweek is a 7 day period beginning at 12:00 am Saturday morning and ending at 11:59 pm Friday evening.
All non-Exempt employees are required to maintain and submit accurate records of their hours worked via the payroll system.
Managers must review and approve all time records for accuracy.
What Counts as Time Worked?
Lunches that do not provide a break from work or break periods that last less than 20 minutes.
Email, phone calls, etc. performed during as well as outside the employee’s normal work schedule.
Training that is job related and/or mandatory.
Managing Overtime
Each department has the responsibility to minimize overtime work to the extent possible. Overtime work should be authorized for non-exempt employees when the work is deemed necessary and is approved by the individuals authorized to make such decisions.
To manage overtime:
Employees that foresee working overtime should discuss the need with their supervisor prior to working.
Supervisors should ensure that any overtime hours are productive.
Be cautious of meeting times to ensure travel to meetings occurs during normal work hours and adjourn early enough in the work day to allow travel time back to other work sites.
Consider teleworking for those positions that meet the profile.
Require non-exempt employees take lunches away from their desks or work areas
Managing overtime does not include having employees work off the clock.
Compensatory Time
Compensatory time is provided in lieu of overtime. For every hour worked over 40 in a work week, a non-employee will accrue 1.5 hours of compensatory time.
Time off for holidays, paid leave and compensatory time are not counted towards the 40 hours worked threshold for calculating compensatory or overtime hours.
If an employee has compensatory time accrued, it is charged first before sick or vacation leave.
Compensatory Time is subject to a 240 hour maximum accumulation. Employees who exceed that threshold will receive cash payments for any additional overtime. All compensatory time balances on the books as of the last full pay period of the fiscal year must be paid out.
Supervisors should permit employees to use compensatory time within a reasonable period if the use does not disrupt the department.
Employees terminating from the institution or transferring to another department will receive a compensatory time payoff from their current department.
Examples of Compensable Time
On Friday at 3:00 pm, a non-exempt employee is asked to stay past the end of his regular work schedule to handle an issue that came up at the last minute. Because there is not time to flex the hours, the extra time must be paid as overtime or comp time.
A non-exempt employee checks his e-mail in the evenings at home. This is considered hours worked and the employee must record it on his timecard.
If an employee drives to their primary work location and is then asked to drive to a secondary location, the drive to the secondary location is considered compensable work. However, if the employee is a passenger in the vehicle, this is not compensable.
An employee is out of town on university business and has two appointments: one at 9:00 am and one at 6:00 pm. The employee can be asked to do other non-work related activities between appointments, thus reducing the hours worked to the time related to the appointments.
An employee leaves home, driving his personal vehicle, at 7:00 am to attend a 10:00 meeting out of town, working through lunch. The meeting ends at 3:00 pm and the employee returns home at 6:00 pm. The entire time is compensable less his normal commute time.
A non-exempt employee attends a two-day, out-of-state conference. The employee leaves home at 6:30 am to catch a 9:00 am flight, which lands at 11:00 am. Day one of the conference begins at 12:00 pm and ends at 5:00 pm. After 5:00 pm, the employee and others elect to meet for dinner in the hotel restaurant for two hours. The hours between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm are considered time worked and should be recorded by the employee and approved by the supervisor. Travel hours between 6:30 am and 9:00 am, less normal commute time, are compensable for the driver of the vehicle, but not passengers.
Day two (see above example) begins at 8:30 am and ends at 3:30 pm with a one-hour lunch break. The employee catches a 5:30 pm flight returning home at 8:00 pm. All hours between 8:30 am and 5:00 pm, less the lunch hour, are compensable. Travel hours in a personal vehicle between 5:30 pm and 8:00 pm, less normal commute time, is compensable for the driver of the vehicle from the airport, but not passengers of the vehicle.