• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Shaved minutes

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

bigworm82

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon

So I was recently let go from a job that I have been at for 6 years. Back in April I had found out that the way they were rounding was not adding up. I spoke with the Payroll company that does our payroll just to ask if they were aware of the issue. Didn't hear back from them. However, I did hear from the owner of my job that I had to not get involved in things that weren't my business and that even then what they were doing was completely legal. I said that rounding is legal but it has to average out to benefit both employer and employee. The way they were doing the rounding was as follows. It went by the 10th of the hour.

The way it went was as follows. Clock in at say 3:42 and it would round up to 3:50. Clock out at 3:49 and it would round down to 3:40. If it rounded approriately it would have rounded down before the 5 min mark and above after.

I spoke with BOLI about it and they said they can only go back to November. I'm sure it's been happening since they switched to the payroll company that they have now. They did stop doing it about 2 weeks after I noticed though. I'm betting because they found it that it was in fact illegal. Should I talk to a lawyer directly and see if they can petition the payroll company to hand over the actual time stamp along with the rounded times that they have on file? I would like to see all the hourly people get reimbursed for the minutes they lost. I know in 1 pay period it was 120 minutes gone. When i pointed it out the Operations Manager said yeah it's only 120 minutes that's not enough to complain about.
 


commentator

Senior Member
You don't even work there any more. Why do you care? How much would you recover personally if they paid it all? What's 120 minutes worth of pay? Enough to cover the legal support and hassle and time and attention you'd have to spend on it? Remember, you wouldn't prevail anyway.

And it would not be your place to recover the wages and make the company pay back the miniscule amounts of money they might have been not paying you in accordance with correct figuring of petty time off anyway. It would be up to the Department of Labor (called BOLI in your state). If they say they can't go back past November, guess what? That's the way it is. That's the federal law they're talking about. Why do you think this is worth pursuing? Do you have some idea that you might have whistleblower's protection or something or could perhaps sue the company? Isn't there. All this did was pretty much get you fired, along with perhaps other issues, and that's about all there is here.
 

bigworm82

Junior Member
I care because they have a reputation of screwing over their employees. They aren't honest about anything either. They say they will do something and then come up with some reason why they don't have to. It wouldn't just be 120 minutes either. You say it doesn't matter but it does. 60 minutes a week over say 84 weeks (1.5 years at least) is $1700 bucks. That's not chump change. It may be to you and if so that's fine. But being told I shouldn't worry about them rounding and losing 2 hours of pay isn't ok. Plus it didn't only happen to me. It happened to every hourly employee that had been there over that time. Lets say 25 or so. now it's up to $42,500. Still insignificant? Also BOLI said they can't but a real lawyer can and perhaps small claims court. My question was more of can a payroll company be told to turn over the actual punch times of employees if a Lawsuit is filed.
 

bigworm82

Junior Member
Only reason I didn't press the issue at the time was because I was in the midst of buying a house. Didn't want to risk getting fired. Is it wrong to go back to a company when they were doing something (and wanting to do other things) illegal? not at all. Whether I work there or not.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Theoretically yes. There is no law that says an employer could not have their payroll records subpoenaed. Therefore yes, it is possible.

In practice, it's not going to happen unless you are able to convince an attorney to open a class action suit. You will NOT get a subpoena for their payroll records if you file in small claims. Without a class action, you're at best only going to get your own records, and you may not even be able to get those.

FYI, while I am not disputing that if the employer was rounding the way you were describing, it was done incorrectly, they may LEGALLY round to the nearest quarter hour. They are not required by law to round to the nearest five minute mark. 3:42 and 3:49 would both appropriately round to 3:45. Anything from 3:38 to 3:52 would round to 3:45. 3:37 and down would round to 3:30; 3:53 and up would round to 4:00.
 
Last edited:

bigworm82

Junior Member
So are you saying that they could decide to base it on rounding to the nearest 1/4 hour? I know they did it by the 10th. Heck, one day I accidentally hit clock out instead of clock in..so then I clocked in immediately after. It said I clocked in at 3:50 and out at 3:40.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
The FLSA, which is the primary law regarding the payment of wages in this country, expressly gives them permission to round to the nearest quarter hour. That is the largest segment they may use, otherwise sometimes known as the rule of "7s and 8s". If you clock in any time between 3:00 and 3:07, they must round it back to 3:00, but if you clock in any time between 3:08 and 3:15, they can round it to 3:15. And so on.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
The FLSA, which is the primary law regarding the payment of wages in this country, expressly gives them permission to round to the nearest quarter hour. That is the largest segment they may use, otherwise sometimes known as the rule of "7s and 8s". If you clock in any time between 3:00 and 3:07, they must round it back to 3:00, but if you clock in any time between 3:08 and 3:15, they can round it to 3:15. And so on.
That is the system that I am accustomed to as well. Many years ago I had an employer that had a rule against overtime unless it was expressly authorized. At the same time, we had to take phone calls right up until the end of shift, so everyone almost always had overtime on their timecard that didn't get paid.

The state DOL came in and made them pay everyone overtime for a certain number of past months and then they had to use the method you are describing from that point on.
 

bigworm82

Junior Member
I understand what you're saying. But my question is will the law go we will base it on the 1/4 hour. Or will they say we will base it on how the company had done it? The every 10 minutes.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top