Time Management Policy for Non-Exempt Staff

Effective: 9/15/16
Contact: Human Resources

In accordance with the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA), non-exempt staff are eligible to receive overtime pay for time worked in excess of 40 hours per work week. The work week is from 12:00 a.m. Sunday through 11:59 p.m. Saturday. Non-exempt staff are paid bi-weekly, every other Friday, and there are 26 pay periods per year. The payroll schedule can be found on Jewell Central under the Human Resources tab.

Overtime will be paid at a rate of one-and one-half times the regular hourly rate for all time worked over 40 hours in a work week. Vacation, sick, personal, or dependent leave time will not be counted toward the 40 hour work week when calculating overtime. Other overtime guidelines include:

  • Staff members who anticipate the need for overtime to complete the week’s work must notify their supervisor in advance and obtain approval prior to working hours that extend beyond their normal schedule. Though staff members will be paid for any hours worked, including unapproved overtime, they may be subject to discipline for performing unauthorized work.
  • Supervisors may offset anticipated overtime in a work week by adjusting a staff member’s work hours within the same work week, including requiring a staff member to leave work early and/or not come into work on a particular day when the staff member has already worked 40 hours in the work week or is expected to work additional hours later in the week.
  • Staff members can be required by their supervisors to work overtime based on the needs of the department. Supervisors will provide as much advanced notice as possible under the circumstances and will assign overtime work as fairly and consistently as possible given the nature of the work to be performed. Refusal to work scheduled overtime may result in discipline, up to and including termination.
  • Staff members cannot waive their right to overtime compensation for hours worked over 40 in a work week.
  • Overtime compensation for a non-exempt staff member cannot be in the form of time off at a later date. For example, a non-exempt admission counselor may be required to work his/her regular schedule and then another 4 hours on Saturday. The 4 hours will be paid at a rate of one-and-one-half the employee’s regular rate of pay, and the supervisor does not have the option to reduce the employee’s schedule by 4 hours in a future week to account for these overtime hours.

Non-exempt staff will record their time through the on-line site Paycor. If a staff member believes that a time card needs edits, the supervisor should be contacted before the end of the work week. Time records cannot be adjusted without prior approval. Time off requests for vacation, sick, personal, or dependent leave must also be submitted through Paycor. Falsification of a time record is grounds for discipline, up to and including termination.

Non-exempt staff must accurately record the time they begin and end their workday, as well as the beginning and ending time of each meal break. Non-exempt staff who are scheduled a minimum of six (6) hours during the day will be allowed a meal break. Meal breaks (typically lasting at least 30 minutes) are not paid for by the College. Meal break times are scheduled based upon the needs of the department. In addition to a meal break, non-exempt staff scheduled eight (8) hours per day may take two (2) paid breaks 15 minutes each to be scheduled by the supervisor. These paid breaks are not recorded in Paycor. Should the workday need to be changed to attend to a personal matter, the lunch period may be shortened or omitted or the employee may arrive late or leave early with the advanced approval of their supervisor. Non-exempt staff that are scheduled to work on an observed holiday will receive one and one-half times pay for all hours actually worked that day, plus regular holiday pay at their regular hourly rate of pay.

Non-exempt staff are eligible for compensation for the time they spend traveling on College business. The compensation an employee receives depends on the kind of travel and whether the travel time takes place within normal work hours. Please refer to Appendix A for more information.

Time spent by non-exempt staff using electronic communications for work purposes will be considered time worked which is compensable and will count toward overtime eligibility as required by law. Therefore, electronic communications should not be used outside regularly scheduled work hours unless required by the supervisor including reading, responding, or sending work-related e-mails and text messages.

Non-exempt employees called back to work beyond their regularly scheduled shift will receive a minimum of two (2) hours of pay at time and one-half their regular hourly pay rate even when the time actually spent back on the job is less than two (2) hours. The exception to this policy would be for employees who live in student housing since this is built into their weekly schedule. If the time spent back on the job exceeds two (2) hours, the employee will be compensated for actual hours worked at time and one-half their regular hourly pay rate. Please refer to Appendix B for more information.

FLSA AND TRAVEL TIME (APPENDIX A)
The College is committed to compensating all employees for time worked in accordance with the U.S. Department of Labor’s guidelines for payment of travel time by non-exempt employees. Non-exempt staff must record compensable travel time in accordance with the College’s Non-Exempt Staff Time Management Policy.

A staff member’s supervisor may rearrange the work schedule of an employee within the same work week (Sunday-Saturday) to avoid additional compensation hours which may occur as a result of travel time or compensable commuting time as described below. Whenever possible, the supervisor and staff member should discuss the possibility of rearranging the work schedule prior to departure.

The upcoming sections discuss common travel situations and relate only to non-exempt employees. Exempt employees do not receive additional pay for travel time.

Commute Time
An employee’s normal commute from home-to-work and from work-to-home is not compensable time. But, as a general rule, once the regularly scheduled work shift begins, time spent by an employee in travel as part of his or her activities on behalf of the College is compensable time.

Travel During the Workday
Travel as part of the employee’s principal activity must be counted as hours worked. If the travel is for the benefit of the College, it is compensable. Example: the employee travels from job site to job site during the workday.

Special One-Day Assignment
In limited circumstances, time spent traveling on a special one-day assignment to a location other than the location where an employee typically reports to work, performed at the College’s request, is generally compensable time, except for that time that would constitute the employees usual commute time.

Here is an illustration of this concept: An employee’s ordinary commute time to and from the College is 30 minutes at the start and end of each day (1 hour total), for which the employee is not compensated. On a particular day, the employee, at the College’s directive, travels to a different location on business. The employee’s commute to this other location is 1 hour and 30 minutes each way (3 hours total). The employee would be compensated for 2 hours of travel time on this day (3 hours of commute time less the 1 hour of normal commute time).

Overnight Travel
For overnight trips out of town (e.g., attending a conference at the College’s direction), all time spent traveling is work time when it corresponds with the employee’s normal working hours. This not only includes during regular working days but also includes during corresponding working hours on nonworking days. So, for example, if an employee regularly works from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday, travel during these hours is compensable work time on Saturday and Sunday as well.

Other guidelines related to overnight travel include:

  • Hours spent in travel outside of normal working hours as a passenger in a car, train, airplane, etc., are not counted as compensable time.
  • If the employee is the driver of the vehicle, the employee must be compensated as driving is work time even if it is outside of the employee’s regular schedule.
  • Time spent in a hotel with freedom to use time for the employee’s own purposes is not compensable.
  • Even if the travel time or hotel time would otherwise be considered non-compensable, an employee must be paid for the time if the employee is performing other work, e.g., preparing for a meeting, reviewing documents, making telephone calls, etc.
  • When the travel cuts across time zones, actual hours worked should be used in the calculation.

Below is an example with explanations of when the time should and should not be compensable.

  • Tamara and Jane regularly work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, with a 1-hour lunch. They are assigned overnight travel to attend a conference in Chicago.
  • The employees live near each other and leave in a car driven by Tamara at 1 p.m. for a 3 p.m. flight. On the plane, Tamara watches a movie and Jane sleeps. They arrive in Chicago at 5 p.m. and take a bus to the hotel where the conference will be held.
    − The time spent traveling between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. is compensable time for both employees because it occurred during their regular work hours, even though it wasn’t on a regular work day. It does not matter that Jane was merely a passenger in the car on the way to the airport or that neither employee performed any work on the flight.
    − Neither employee is compensated for the travel time spent on the bus from the airport to the hotel. They were both passengers and it was outside of regular work hours.
    − Assuming no work was performed, neither employee is compensated for time spent in the hotel (except during the conference sessions).
  • Conference sessions are held from 8-5 on Monday.
    − The employees are compensated for their regular work schedule.
    − If the conference involved a workshop or speaker during lunch, or the employees were otherwise required to attend the lunch session, they would be compensated for the lunch break as well.
  • Conference sessions are held from 8-4 on Tuesday. Immediately following the conference, they take a taxi to the airport to catch a 6 p.m. flight back to Kansas City. They are in the taxi for an hour and at the airport waiting on their flight for an hour.
    − The employees are compensated for their regular work schedule, including the one hour taxi ride to the airport because, even though they were both passengers, it was travel during regular work hours.
    − If the conference involved a workshop or speaker during lunch, or the employees were otherwise required to attend the lunch session, they would be compensated for the lunch break as well.
    − The employees are not compensated for the one hour wait at the Chicago airport because it was outside of regular work hours.
    • On the flight to Kansas City, both employees check and respond to work emails for an hour and sleep for an hour. They land at 8:00 p.m. Tamara makes the 30 minute drive home, dropping Jane off along the way.
    − Both employees are compensated for one hour during the flight because, even though the travel was outside of regular work hours, they performed work.
    − Tamara is compensated for the 30 minute drive home because, even though it was outside of regular work hours, she was the driver of the vehicle. Jane, as the passenger, would not be compensated for this time.

Call Back Compensation (Appendix B)
It is the practice of William Jewell College to provide additional compensation to non-exempt employees who are required to return to work in cases of emergency beyond their regularly scheduled shift.

Based on sound business need and with prior approval of Department Directors, non-exempt employees may be called back to work beyond their regularly scheduled shift. General guidelines for compensation are laid out below.

  1. Employees who are called back to work will be required to log hours worked in the “call back” pay department in Paycor.
  2. Employees returning to work will receive a minimum of two (2) hours of pay at time and one-half their regular hourly pay rate even when the time actually spent back on the job is less than two (2) hours.
  3. If the time spent back on the job exceeds two (2) hours, the employee will be compensated for actual hours worked at time and one-half their regular hourly pay rate.
  4. Actual hours worked for call back purposes means only that time spent at the work site. Time spent traveling to and from the work site is not included as time worked.
  5. An employee whose work continues following the end of his / her regularly scheduled work hours is not eligible for call back pay.
  6. The exception to this would be for employees that live in student housing since this is built into their weekly schedule.