No pay for unauthorized time

[LdyCjn]

What is the name of your state? Texas

I work for a small engineering firm in Texas and am an hourly employee. The last several months our workload has decreased and we are currently on a skeleton crew at work. We have a few jobs coming in but not enough to sustain an entire weeks work creating down time during projects. The directing manager has said to come to him when we are out of work, however, when we do this, he has no work to give us leaving us with nothing to do and no direction. The owner has stated, when we have this down time, we are allowed to use the time to update ourselves on the latest topics of our field that would improve our skills and knowledge. We would charge this time to Continuing Education. However, as of yesterday, this policy has now changed and any of this time now has to be completely authorized. I understand this, what I don't agree with is it is now stated, per my boss,

"Continuing Education: No CE hours will be paid without submitting a written request to the Operation Manager and the Managing Director and obtain both their approval. Unauthorized hours will be rejected and won’t be paid.

Overhead Hours
Only the Operation Manager can authorize the Overhead Hours. Unauthorized Overhead Hours will be rejected and won’t be paid."

If this policy is implemented, what are the legalities of these statements?

 

[justalayman]

Well, while any work time must be paid, they can fire you for working unauthorized time. Also, simce CE is not part of your work duties, the employer can argue you were not in fact working. Of course that means you would be free to leave as well.

 

[adjusterjack]

what are the legalities of these statements?

None. There are no legal issues. You've been notified in advance of how things will be going forward.

 

[LdiJ]

None. There are no legal issues. You've been notified in advance of how things will be going forward.

I am not sure that it is clear on how things are to work going forward. These are apparently employees, scheduled to work, who end up with down time where they have nothing to do during their scheduled time. That happens.

It also makes perfect sense that an employer would encourage those employees to do continuing ed during those down times when they are on the schedule to work.

Its unclear whether the new policy means that they won't be paid for the hours where they have nothing to do, or whether the company won't pay the cost of the continuing ed during those scheduled hours, even though the employees are being paid for being present.

 

[justalayman]

It appears they can sit and twiddle their thumbs but they cannot engage in continuing education activities on company time without express authorization


As long as the employee is engaged to wait they must be paid. If they are not engaged to wait, and as such not getting paid, they can go home or do whatever they want, apparently including CE endeavors.

 

[LdyCjn]

Thank you for answering. Unfortunately, what we are being told is if we don't have authorized project work, no matter what it is nor nothing to do, we will not be paid during our wait time while we are at work unless it is authorized by the manager and owner. That down time cannot be charged to a job as it is down time. Now it seems we must even get approval for the down time. However, we will not have any work to keep us busy until we get a job to keep us busy for 40 hours of the week. Neither my manager, nor the company owner has been clear as to how to the handle down time we have had for the last several months.

 

[LdiJ]

Thank you for answering. Unfortunately, what we are being told is if we don't have authorized project work, no matter what it is nor nothing to do, we will not be paid during our wait time while we are at work unless it is authorized by the manager and owner. That down time cannot be charged to a job as it is down time. Now it seems we must even get approval for the down time. However, we will not have any work to keep us busy until we get a job to keep us busy for 40 hours of the week. Neither my manager, nor the company owner has been clear as to how to the handle down time we have had for the last several months.

If they require you to be present, they must pay you.

 

[justalayman]

As,ldij states:

If they require you to remain on site, they are obligated to pay you. They can direct you regarding what you can and can’t do while you are on this paid downtime. If they don’t want to pay you, tell them to give you a call when they have work and head out the door.

Sometimes a company has to create a work code for “we’re all just sitting around playing video games on our computers waiting for real work” to charge your time to. That’s there problem what your time gets charged to. If they want ya there, they have to pay you.