Expert: Brian Phillips - 7/2/2009

Question
I am work in Florida as a salaried employee.  My normal work hours are 7:30a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  I called my boss to say I would be 2 hours late because I was not feeling well.  I arrived at 9:30a.m. and worked until 6:00 p.m.  I was told that I am being charged with 2 hours of sick time even though I made up the time by working 2 hours late.  Is this legal?

Answer
Michelle,

I am not an expert in Florida wage and hour, but from what I could tell from researching this, Florida state follows the Federal wage and hour laws.  In that case, what happened to you is not illegal,  but it does seem unfair.  Federal wage and hour laws do not address what companies should do in terms of paying employees for time they did not actually work.  So this means, you were paid for time you did not work.  overtime will not apply for these two hours,  so it is possible if you worked a full week consisting of 40 hours, plus the 2 sick hours, then you would be paid 42 regular hours- with no overtime.

Also look through your employee manual to see what the policy is on using and mandating sick time for employees.

If you took off 2 hours for being sick, then stayed late to make it up, both you and the company should be "made whole" in terms of your working the required hours for the day and week.    Why they added two hours for sick was most likely as a way to help you use up that sick time.   

Personally, and not knowing all the details of the employer or your work history, it is plausible there are reasons to pay you for two hours of sick time,  or not to pay you for any sick time because the hours were made up.   Hard to say.   So,  since it is not illegal as far as I can tell,  you may want to ask the HR person or your supervisor why the company wants to pay you for two more hours- after all, they DID get a full day of work out of you.

If their issue is you ended up "making your own schedule" and came in late and worked late, then maybe they want to discourage that from other employees asking to do the same thing.  Hard to say from my limited knowledge of the circumstances.

Sort of a gray answer, but if you want to follow up with more info,  feel free to do so.


Brian Phillips
www.harvis.org
President