My state is NC. My question is whether it’s legal to change time cards to avoid paying overtime.
It’s part of my job to transcribe time cards onto worksheets and then send those spreadsheets to our home office so they can generate payroll. They also get scanned copies of the time cards, but it’s the worksheets that she (the person who actually generates the checks) uses to calculate how much the checks will be.
I use a “nearest 15 minutes” rule. So, if somebody clocks in at 6:53 it’s shown as 7:00 on the worksheet. If they clock in at 6:50 it’s shown as 6:45, and so on.
The home office is trying to eliminate a lot of our overtime hours because it’s too often unjustified. Even if they don’t have an early job to do the workers will come in a half hour or 15 minutes early, clock in, and then sit around and talk until there is actually work to do. They have been told not to do that and have been scolded for it, but they are never actually disciplined for it. So, of course, they stop for a while but then go right back to doing it again.
Yesterday I received a call from the home office, complaining that the worksheets I sent them show too many people clocking in early. I was told that even it a time card shows a clock-in time of 6:45, I am to enter it on the worksheet as 7:00. I want to do this because I know that these guys are just creating overtime for themselves, but I don’t think I can. I believe that if a time card shows a certain number of hours, the worker must be paid for those hours and it is actually illegal for us to strike out the time that’s shown and change it to what we want it to be. I believe that the only proper way to solve the problem is to require workers to not clock in until they are actually going to start working, and then to find a way to enforce that rule—even if it means firing people who disobey it. I’ve tried to explain that to the home office but she insists that I change the times anyway.
If the time cards show 8.5 hours worked in a day but the worksheet shows only 8 hours, what’s to stop somebody from taking pictures of their time cards for, say, a year, and then suing for back pay? I have heard that they could be awarded as much as three times the amount and I think it’s just a matter of time before one of them finds that out and schemes to do just that. Plus, as the person who would be the one to actually make the changes, I’m afraid I could even be personally liable if it’s a criminal act.
I just want to do my job, but I don’t want to break the law, but I am being specifically directed to do so. Am I right, or is it okay for me to change the times the way I’m being told to do?
It’s part of my job to transcribe time cards onto worksheets and then send those spreadsheets to our home office so they can generate payroll. They also get scanned copies of the time cards, but it’s the worksheets that she (the person who actually generates the checks) uses to calculate how much the checks will be.
I use a “nearest 15 minutes” rule. So, if somebody clocks in at 6:53 it’s shown as 7:00 on the worksheet. If they clock in at 6:50 it’s shown as 6:45, and so on.
The home office is trying to eliminate a lot of our overtime hours because it’s too often unjustified. Even if they don’t have an early job to do the workers will come in a half hour or 15 minutes early, clock in, and then sit around and talk until there is actually work to do. They have been told not to do that and have been scolded for it, but they are never actually disciplined for it. So, of course, they stop for a while but then go right back to doing it again.
Yesterday I received a call from the home office, complaining that the worksheets I sent them show too many people clocking in early. I was told that even it a time card shows a clock-in time of 6:45, I am to enter it on the worksheet as 7:00. I want to do this because I know that these guys are just creating overtime for themselves, but I don’t think I can. I believe that if a time card shows a certain number of hours, the worker must be paid for those hours and it is actually illegal for us to strike out the time that’s shown and change it to what we want it to be. I believe that the only proper way to solve the problem is to require workers to not clock in until they are actually going to start working, and then to find a way to enforce that rule—even if it means firing people who disobey it. I’ve tried to explain that to the home office but she insists that I change the times anyway.
If the time cards show 8.5 hours worked in a day but the worksheet shows only 8 hours, what’s to stop somebody from taking pictures of their time cards for, say, a year, and then suing for back pay? I have heard that they could be awarded as much as three times the amount and I think it’s just a matter of time before one of them finds that out and schemes to do just that. Plus, as the person who would be the one to actually make the changes, I’m afraid I could even be personally liable if it’s a criminal act.
I just want to do my job, but I don’t want to break the law, but I am being specifically directed to do so. Am I right, or is it okay for me to change the times the way I’m being told to do?
