Arizona Labor Law Time Off (school, gated, salary)

[christianklein]

When I got hired on with my current company, I had made an agreement with my boss. (I was hourly employee at the time.)

1. If I needed to take a ½ or full day off without pay to take care of sick kids or whatever I needed to do, they were ok with that.

Now I’m salary.

I went on Vacation and took a Friday without pay. (36hr week) Boss Ok’ed it.

Get back from Vacation and got a note on my desk. “We had to use 4hrs of you PTO time to cover your time off.

My Question: I’m a Salary employee; can I request time off without pay?
The Company says if I take time they have to use my PTO

[Finger Laker]

that sounds about right - since you are not hourly, can't collect overtime, etc it's hard for them to just not pay you for a half day

it needs to be accounted for something on your timesheet - salary assumes you are there and anytime you are not there has to be logged ...... as opposed to hourly which assumes you aren't there and you get paid when you show up (basically)

sounds like sick days, vacation, etc all roll into PTO so that could limit options as well

if you have a good relationship with your boss and this is infrequent, probably your best bet would be to see if you can adjust you daily hours to compensate for that half day missed (say make it up over 2 days in the week)

or you could put that money aside and save it for the end of the year in case you run out of PTO at which point any time missed would be unpaid

[christianklein]

I just don't want to use all my pto time, it take so long to build up.

Kids are always getting sick or half days at school.

If i only work 36 hours in a week, can the company use my pto? (is that legal)

If i work 50 hr, thier not going to pay overtime!!!!

[Finger Laker]

your salary is based on a certain work week - it is that # of hours that you are agreeing to work

if that # is 40 then any amount less than 40 has to be due to something

not sure what your company code options are, but if you are limited to say PTO, Bereavement, Holiday, Business Travel, etc then how would you have your management code it?

They need to account for your hours. If you are not there and are getting paid in a structure that assumes you are there then they must show some reason for you not being there.

not for nothing, but Personal Time Off is for things like other personal obligations that make it so you can't come to work

You are not owed flexibility in having kids get sick or having half days - you should be thankful that you have a company that has been reasonably flexible up to this point and as such I'd just speak with your manager and try to find a resolution

as a salaried employee your agree to pretty much do what it takes to get your job classification completed - there is usually a promotion and pay increase when changing titles

most people don't fight the benefits of the move, but get upset when they lose some of the flexibility they had - unfortunately you can't have it all

[christianklein]

I'm not asking to get paid if I'm not there, pay me for a 36 hr week.

The agreement we made upfront was, I would be able to take time off for kids when they are out of school or sick with out pay.

That's it.

[Finger Laker]

Unless you had that worked in writing as unpaid time off in a salaried position you probably don't have much recourse

Here is the $1M question - since you have to account for any time less than 40 hours, how would you code this time off so that you do not get paid for it?

That is what it sounds like they are struggling with ..... if it was just them being inflexible I doubt they would of accomodated you in the past and then promoted you subsequently

[christianklein]

I guess I need to go and talk with HR

[christianklein]

I'm not sure about the codes.

They switch about 15 people in my department over to salary 3 weeks ago.

If I can bring some law to HR that says " yes you can pay a salary person less then 40 work week if you have a writen agreement"

[Finger Laker]

honestly there are many sites out there that point out labor law highlights and although it is something that is state specific, this one is pretty broad

it could be a simple issue of mechanics - at my last job we were able to just code it as sick time (which was paid) and didn't count against vacation time accrued

a lot will depend on the policies of your company - even if they are legally allowed to do it, they may not have the internal capabilities to do it

with the law you would need to make a distinction between allowed and obligated as well

it unlikely most companies will work out a written agreement on such an item as it increases their risk and provides a side policy that they would have to comply with

it's a tough spot, but just keep your head and realize that neither of your are being unreasonable, but you both may need to find a way to be creative

the way it's setup right now in most places is that if you are a salaried employee it's very difficult for your employer to dock you pay - basically your struggling with protections that were put in for your benefit, a benefit that is really working against you for what you are trying to accomplish

it sounds like you have a good relationship - just speak to them - HR and mgrs are human as well and at worst you'll get their side of the issue and a greater understanding

[observer53]

I don't think there is any Arizona statute on this subject, there is lots of good information on the federal Department of Labor website.
http://www.dol.gov