California Employment Law and Paid Time Off Reporting
September 9, 2013 3:40 PM Subscribe
My employer is asking me to report two half days off as one day off. Is this legal?
I understand that California employers aren't required to give Paid Time Off to employees, and thatstate regulations that make taking half of a day off accumulate differently than in other states, but my HR person has stated to me via email:
"If your plan is to take two half days instead of one full day, then it has to show on your timesheet as 8 hours in one day"
This seems like fudging somehow, or else why would I be asked to report something other than my actual hours? Or is request not a problem?
I've looked through the State of California Division of Labor Standards website for awhile but I'm having trouble finding this information. If you could point me in the right direction, that would be great.
Thank you!
I understand that California employers aren't required to give Paid Time Off to employees, and thatstate regulations that make taking half of a day off accumulate differently than in other states, but my HR person has stated to me via email:
"If your plan is to take two half days instead of one full day, then it has to show on your timesheet as 8 hours in one day"
This seems like fudging somehow, or else why would I be asked to report something other than my actual hours? Or is request not a problem?
I've looked through the State of California Division of Labor Standards website for awhile but I'm having trouble finding this information. If you could point me in the right direction, that would be great.
Thank you!
Ah, found something else. You'll want to look up the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. This governs how various classifications of employees are allowed to take time off.
posted by m@f at 4:33 PM on September 9, 2013
posted by m@f at 4:33 PM on September 9, 2013
The Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center has a number of clinics (in-person and telephonic). You should be able to get your answer there. They also have great fact sheets up on the website.
posted by anya32 at 4:35 PM on September 9, 2013
posted by anya32 at 4:35 PM on September 9, 2013
This doesn't seem sketchy to me.
They're letting you do what you want, and are filing it the way that fits into their overly rigid accounting system. The rigidity may be due to software limitations (it only lets you take integer days off) or bureaucratic (they only like accounting integer numbers of days), but whatever the source of it, I can't see how it would end up cheating you out of anything.
posted by aubilenon at 4:37 PM on September 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
They're letting you do what you want, and are filing it the way that fits into their overly rigid accounting system. The rigidity may be due to software limitations (it only lets you take integer days off) or bureaucratic (they only like accounting integer numbers of days), but whatever the source of it, I can't see how it would end up cheating you out of anything.
posted by aubilenon at 4:37 PM on September 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
If it were me, I'd do as they asked and keep that email indefinitely.
posted by sageleaf at 4:41 PM on September 9, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by sageleaf at 4:41 PM on September 9, 2013 [3 favorites]
I've known people that could not take partial days off. If they needed 2 hours for a doctor's appointment they had to burn an entire day off. Is it possible that this is the official policy at your company and this is how they are working around it to let you take 1/2 days?
posted by COD at 6:05 PM on September 9, 2013
posted by COD at 6:05 PM on September 9, 2013
Or is request not a problem?
If the request doesn't cost you any money (it doesn't), it doesn't matter whether it's legal or not to you. Follow sageleaf's advice and stop worrying.
posted by saeculorum at 6:21 PM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
If the request doesn't cost you any money (it doesn't), it doesn't matter whether it's legal or not to you. Follow sageleaf's advice and stop worrying.
posted by saeculorum at 6:21 PM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
The rigidity may be due to software limitations (it only lets you take integer days off) or bureaucratic (they only like accounting integer numbers of days), but whatever the source of it, I can't see how it would end up cheating you out of anything.
This has been my multi decade experience with several SAP-using California HQd (or heavily CA dense) companies.
Before we got gobbled up, I was able to "take off" one day a month in the summer to leave an hour early twice a week for therapy appointments. Now we do the half day, track in email, book halfs together as a whole in whatever our current system is.
posted by tilde at 6:30 PM on September 9, 2013
This has been my multi decade experience with several SAP-using California HQd (or heavily CA dense) companies.
Before we got gobbled up, I was able to "take off" one day a month in the summer to leave an hour early twice a week for therapy appointments. Now we do the half day, track in email, book halfs together as a whole in whatever our current system is.
posted by tilde at 6:30 PM on September 9, 2013
In a way, I was asking about this last April. As suggested above, I wouldn't worry -- fact is, they're doing the OP a favor. Kinda curious why she cares.
posted by Rash at 9:21 AM on September 10, 2013
posted by Rash at 9:21 AM on September 10, 2013
The request could be costing the OP money. At my job, if I work half a day, I don't have to report it as vacation or sick pay. If I don't work at all in a given day, then I have to report it. If you are getting paid by the hour, then there's no difference. If you are salaried, there can be.
posted by pizzazz at 12:11 PM on September 10, 2013
posted by pizzazz at 12:11 PM on September 10, 2013
I have worked at exempt jobs that had the following policy:
1) PTO must be reported in chunks of 8 hrs
2) If you worked 4 hours or more of a given day, that counted as a full day
3) Thus, half days or less were not counted as PTO
So, at that company, two half days on my timesheet would show 4 hours of working time and 4 hours of non-working time for each day, and I would not be using a day of my accumulated PTO.
On rereading the comments, this is basically what m@f and pizazz are saying, but contradicts everyone else. When the HR woman told us this, we all thought that seemed overly generous, so we were very careful to clarify what she was saying -- this is definitely how it worked there. YMMV.
posted by natabat at 12:18 PM on September 10, 2013
1) PTO must be reported in chunks of 8 hrs
2) If you worked 4 hours or more of a given day, that counted as a full day
3) Thus, half days or less were not counted as PTO
So, at that company, two half days on my timesheet would show 4 hours of working time and 4 hours of non-working time for each day, and I would not be using a day of my accumulated PTO.
On rereading the comments, this is basically what m@f and pizazz are saying, but contradicts everyone else. When the HR woman told us this, we all thought that seemed overly generous, so we were very careful to clarify what she was saying -- this is definitely how it worked there. YMMV.
posted by natabat at 12:18 PM on September 10, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
Exempt employees are paid their full salary for if they performed any work in a given week. Colloquially, if you are exempt you are paid to do a job, not by the hours it takes to do the job.
I have had exempt jobs where I didn't have to track time off if I did any work on a given day. Combining your half days into one full day appears to be a method of ensuring you track a full day off when you would otherwise not show any time off at all. This may or may not impact you and this may or may not be legal - you'll find a lot of info by googling "exempt half day off" - I hope this helps!
posted by m@f at 4:20 PM on September 9, 2013