Human Resource Blog

No, this is not legal in Kentucky or anywhere else in the U.S. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA requires employers to pay workers for all the time worked. This is true, even if the employee works the time without permission, or in direct disregard for the employers instructions. Put very simply, employees must be paid for all time worked.

Wal-Mart recently paid more than $6 million to settle a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Labor for automatically deducting breaks from employees wages, as reported on our sister site blog.laborlawcenter.com. So you see, this can have very serious consequences.

The appropriate way to handle this situation is to write up any employee who neglects to take their full 30 minute break. Any employee who repeats this three times should be terminated. We can almost promise that at most, one employee will be terminated. Usually it only takes one write-up for employees to get the idea that you take this seriously. Most employee handbooks have rules against an employee working unauthorized overtime, and that is exactly what this is.

In special circumstances, a supervisor may give permission for an employee to skip a break, or to take a shorter break. Obviously, you would not want to discipline the employee in those circumstances.

If you do not currrently have a rule against working unauthorized overtime, you may want to make one.

So by all means have employees sign a document that they are aware that a 30 minute break is required, and they will be disciplined or terminated for taking shorter breaks, or for working unauthorized overtime.

No, this is probably not legal. Employers must pay workers for all work time, including planning and getting ready to work. This is very likely compensable time under both federal and Pennsylvania law. Compensable time simply means time the employee must be paid for. If the employer does not start paying workers for this time, they would be justified in reporting the employer to the U. S. Department of Labor or the Pennsylvania labor agency.

Yes, this is probably legal. Companies are under no obligation to offer severance packages to employees. Often, a severance package includes any payments for benefits that the employee would be due, if he or she did not receive a severance package. The package usually includes other benefits. The employee must weigh whether or not the severance package, as a whole, is worth it to him or her.

PTO is not the same as vacation. PTO is a combination of personal time, sick leave and holiday pay, as well as vacation time. North Carolina requires only that employers pay the portion of the PTO that the company deems is comparable to vacation. That could well be two weeks or less of the total PTO.

The company is not still on a traditional vacation plan, so what the employee would have had is irrelevant.

We have noticed that much dissatisfaction comes when employees regard PTO or vacation as money in the bank. It is not. It is an employers promise of paid time off at a future date, and in many cases that promise can be revoked at any time. The only way for an employee to be sure that they get all their vacation or PTO, is to use it.

You are absolutely required to pay the employee for the 10 minutes that he worked, even if it was not authorized, under the federal FLSA or federal Fair Labor Standards Act. And, you may be required to pay him for the entire period. The FLSA requires that employers pay workers for all rest breaks of 20 minutes or less. Meal periods, which the FLSA defines as usually 30 minutes or more, may be unpaid. So paying the employee for the 20 minute mean break is a grey area. But you must absolutely pay him for the 10 minutes he worked.

The employer would be justified in taking disciplinary action against the employee, but he must be paid for the time worked. Discipline could include issuing a verbal or written reprimand to this employee, or even terminating him. But that does not change the employers obligation to pay every employee for every minute worked. (Our suggestion, if this is a first offense, is that the employee receive a verbal or written warning.)

Read more about this at: http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs22.pdf

In some states this might be legal, but it is very unusual and generally not considered a best HR practice. Payroll deductions are generally governed by state law. Some states have few restrictions, as long as the employer provides employees with an itemized list of deductions. Other states severaly restrict deductions. In a few states, such a deduction would be permitted only if the employee expressly agreed to it in advance, in writing, including the exact amount of the deduction.