Time and Attendance

[tecninja]

I have a question as to if there are any regulations pertaining to Time and Attendance, and schedual adhearance type issues. I live in New York. Are there any laws, at the federal or state level that dictate things like, how a company records time, and how a company determines weather you are late or not. I'll try to give some more specific examples.

If i company uses a time and attendence Device (such as a time clock or computer software), are there any regulations about leaway for "clocking in", can you say you were 3 second late and then write someone up, and or fire them over that. Also can the HR reps in charge of time in attendence, alter the data from that device. Say take off time, change punch in/punch out times and so forth. (eg... if you punch in at 6:56, can they legaly just change that to 7:00 for pay purposes). Also Can a company openly tell employee's that they have to due certain tasks (work related) "on thier own time", as there isn't an opportunity (and no time is provided in the daily schedual) to complete them. (eg.. certain records/bookeeping, that cannot be done due to there not being any specific time schedualed, or there being a database outage.) Which was specificaly noted from HR, needed to be made up "off the clock".

Also as a note on the punch in/punch out issue, were talking people are getting written up for being less then 10 seconds late to signing in "officialy"(each employee is able to sign in from desk phone), but most are at work a good 15-30 min before shift, doing companywork, on thier own time as, they need to be answering calls the second they punch in. Expected things like, Booting and setting up computer, opening databases, checking current issues, reading MANDATORY departmental e-mail (which can be 100 messages a day) for job essential information, ect.... have to be done on your own time, before your shift, as ONLY taking calls is "work". If the company isn't paying employees can they MANDATE that you do it on your own time? Just wondering about the legality of it all. Thanks in advance. Id be happy to elaborate on any of these issues if needed.

 

[tecninja]

Time and Attendence

Hmm noticed no one has touched this one. Is that because No one is sure, or am I totaly off my rocker here?

 

[cbg]

My company doesn't use time clocks so I'm not up on the regs. About the only thing I can tell you is that IN GENERAL you have to be paid for any work you do - they can't mandate that you do things off the clock and not pay you for them. But even that occasionally has some exceptions for things like changing in and out of uniform. And of course it's a totally different story if the employee in question is exempt.

 

[ellencee]

tecninja
Here's what little I know--time clocks as used for computing payroll are in blocks of time--like in 10 minute, or 15 minute increments, so if you clock in at 6:56, for payroll purposes, that may be equal to 7 AM, depending on the method used.
For purposes of being tardy, etc., I've never seen a clock that measures seconds, but I won't argue that one isn't out there in use. But, for the purpose of measuring attendance, the actual time clocked-in is used. The regulation and enforcement of these actions are company policy and are usually part of the employee handbook and orientation, and vary from place to place. Each company is held liable for following it's own policies and procedures.
I have been involved in employment mediations where this was brought up, and the judge held that the policy in effect ruled the situation.
I hope this helps some.

 

[windar]

Here's my two cents. In WA state, time clock and attendance policies are not dictated by any state regulatory body. Instead they are left to the company. So, if your time and attendance software rounds to the nearest 15 or whatever interval, this is perfectly legal. The flip side to this is that employer's must pay for all hours punched. So if the employee clocks in hours early, this time technically must be paid. Thus, rules regarding when employees can punch in must be employed to prevent abuse. (Yep, it happens) You should also have policies outlined that discuss issues like failing to clock in, lunch, breaks, etc. Because this state requires a 30 minute lunch minimum, this time can also be auto-deducted if the employee tries to claim an extra 30 minutes by failing to clock out for lunch.

Most timeclock software can also prevent clocking when you are not scheduled to work.

This can be a tough issue if you are dealing with employees not used to clocking in and out. Make sure they understand it is not a choice but a requirement to get paid. If anyone complains about rounding, I like to tell them my cousin's situation at AT&T where they have a 6 minute window (3 minutes before their scheduled work time and 3 minutes after) to punch in before they need to see there supervisor. In each case rounding up or back to the start time occurs, so there is a little leeway.

Think about the alternative where they can make you clock in EXACTLY at the time of your shift. This is excessive, but can be done.

 

[tecninja]

Time and attendance

The Case in the situation that I am in is that you do have to clock in EXACTLY on your shift, you can clock in early, but if you do (and its not authorized OT) you will not be paid, you will simply avoid being late. Also the way the system is set up, AS soon as you clock in You have to be talking to a customer on a call. So ALL min/hours you are clocked in will be doing this task. Problem is there are other duties that are mandated to perform job (ie paperwork, computer setup, compensating for down database time, keeping up to day with company e-mail, ect..) that MUST be done on your own time as you CANNOT possibly do then when your on the clock, as if your on the clock your instantly doing your job of taking calls. There is no time,provisioning made by the company to do these other tasks. Your options are, do them on your own time (which has been stated in company e-mail) or be fired eventualy for not doing them.