Human Resource Blog

Compensation time?

We are a small service provider in North Carolina and I have a few questions. Staff work out of the office in the community with children and adults with developmental disabilities. At times we have staff come into the office for supervisions, annual evaluations, etc when not working with the consumer, should we be reembursing staff for this time? I think yes but wanted to clarify.
Some of our staff also take consumers to doctor appointments and other therapy based appointments. Staff are not responsible for the consumer during this time (either the parent or therapist) but most will stay at the appointment since the consumer must be picked back up within 30 minutes to an hour. Should we be paying staff for this wait time even though they have the option to leave if they choose to?
Thank you for the information and clarification.

Yes, you absolutely have to pay employees for time they spend in the office for supervision, meetings, conferences, evaluations, etc. If you require the employee to be on the work premises, or engaged in work activities, they must be paid for that time.

The waiting time is a gray area. We would advise you to pay employees for this time, or to consult the DOL. Under federal law, an employee who is required to wait for work on the employers premises (or at another location) must be paid for that waiting time. Theoretically, you could have the employee drop the client off and take a 30-minute or 60-minute break. As long as the employee were able to leave the premises, take the break uninterrupted, and then return at the alloted time, that would be acceptable. However, if the circumstances make it impossible for the employee to leave the premises, or to pursue his or her own interests during that time (reading, knitting, playing video games, etc.) then the employee is entitled to payment for that time. For a more specific answer on this issue, check with the state or federal department of labor.