Expert: Shirley McAllister, CPP, PHR - 3/26/2009

Question
I'm salaried exempt.  We recently changed our sick time policy.  It's been reduced to 80 hours per year and we have to account for every hour.  For example, I work 8 to 5.  If I come in at 9 because I had a doctor appointment and then work until 5 or 6, I have to turn in a exempt timesheet showing 1 hour absent as sick time.  Is that illegal?  If I make up my time why do I have to turn in sick time?  The H/R department says that they want to track that for performance measure and so that people don't use excessive sick time.  Is it legal to use it for performance measure?

Answer
Sick pay, PTO, and Vacation time are fringe benefits provided by the employer.  The are not mandated by law which means the employer does not have to give them to you.

If he chooses to give them to you he must do it according to his written policy.

Because these are furnished by the employer he can say when they can be used.

The law says that the salaried employee must be paid their total salary if the work part of a day they cannot be docked pay for a partial day. The regulations do not care from which fund the money is paid as long as you are paid for the full salary amount.

So yes they are allowed to pay from the sick pay fund.

They can use it to track absenteeism because although the employee is salaried they are still expected to work a schedule and get their work completed. If they are absent an excessive amount of time this does not happen.

They are not allowed to dock the pay of a salaried employee for hours missed.

Shirley