Human Resource Blog

Exempt salaried employee use of time to illness

	Attendance Management
Vacation Request / Response Form Weekly Time Sheets Attendance Calendar for 2008, 2009, or 2010 Annual Attendance Tracker Vacation Request Form for 2008, 2009, 2010 (Calendar) Detailed Absence Report

If an exempt salaried employee who has a medical condition which cause them to be hospitalized frequently and there by use most of their sick/vacation time is told they have only 3 vacation days remaining and if used can be let go. And if the employee has to leave after 4 hrs. at work do to illness can they legally take the remaining 4 hrs of that work day from the last 3 days of vacation time or are they by law to pay for the full day in accordance to the federal regulation of if 1 hr is worked the exempt salaried employee will be paid for the whole day. Also if the HR person tells that employee they can come in at 10 am after the smoke from the everglades fire has cleared,should they be docked by taking that time from the remaining vacation time?

Yes, the employer can dock the employee’s vacation time in both of these cases. It’s true that if a salaried exempt employee works one hour or more, he or she must be paid for the entire day. But, the employer doesn’t have to count the entire day as work time. As ong as the employee’s paycheck is the same amount as usual, the employer can count the time as sick, vacation, etc.

In this case, there may be other options open to the employee. If the employer has more than 50 workers, the employee may be entitled to take unpaid FMLA leave for up to 12 weeks. FMLA can be used on an intermittent basis by an employee who has a serious health condition. While it’s unpaid, it protects the employee’s job.

If the employee has a disability under the EEOC definition, the worker may be entitled to time off under ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. It’s worthwhile looking into both of these alternatives.