The School District of Collier County, Florida COMPENSATORY TIME OFF AGREEMENT

Transcription

1 The School District of Collier County, Florida COMPENSATORY TIME OFF AGREEMENT NOTE: This form is to be used with non-exempt employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement. For employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement (the CBA ), please refer to the CBA (e.g., see 4.11[2006] of the CCAEOCAP CBA). In accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, The School District of Collier County has a policy of granting employees compensatory time off in lieu of compensation for hours worked in excess of 40 hours a week. I have read a copy of this policy, dated September 25, 2001, prior to signing this agreement. I understand that the compensatory time will be granted at time and one-half for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week. I further understand that the compensatory time may be limited, preserved, used or cashed out consistent with the provision of that policy and applicable law and regulations of the U.S. Department of Labor. I knowingly agree to the provision of time off as compensation for overtime work as a condition of my employment and consent to the use of compensatory time in accordance with the policy. I further understand that in the event any portion of the policy is interpreted to conflict with the FLSA or its regulations, the conflicting portion shall be struck and the remainder of the policy shall continue in full force and effect. IMPORTANT: Carefully read the attached policy before you sign this agreement. EMPLOYEE S SIGNATURE: DATE: PLEASEPRINT NAME: EMPLOYEE S SOCIAL SECURITY NO: Return the original signed form to the HUMAN RESOURCE DIVISION for placement in the employee s personnel file. Provide a copy to the employee.

2 TO: All Principals and Assistant Principals All Administrators FROM: Allun R. Hamblett, Executive Director DATE: 25 September 2001 SUBJECT: Overtime M E M O R A N D U M Federal law requires that non-exempt employees-in other words, employees who are not exempt from the provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act-be compensated for any hours worked over forty hours during a workweek. (A workweek is defines as seven consecutive 24-hour periods designated by the school district.) Our union contracts, school board policies, and Florida state laws may provide additional benefits: Where the provisions of federal and state law, collective bargaining agreements, or school board policies differ, the district MUST APPLY the provision that provides the most protection for the employee. So what are hours worked? The federal law provides a very broad definition that is inclusive of all hours worked including time that an employee is suffered or permitted to work. Essentially, this means that an employee who is permitted to come to work early, or work through their lunch period, or allowed to finish a project after quitting, time, or takes work home must be paid for the time worked. In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that non-exempt employees must be paid for all time spent in physical or mental exertion (whether burdensome or not) controlled or required by the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of the employer or his business. This definition includes, but is not limited to the following: Charitable work requested or controlled by the district. Meal breaks if employees are not free to leave their posts. Rest period of twenty minutes or less. Training programs required by the district. Is there any time that is noncompensable? Absolutely. The list includes some of the following noncompensable work: Athletic events sponsored by the district so long as participation or attendance is voluntary and not a condition of employment. Charitable work done voluntarily outside of working hours. Meal periods involving no duties and lasting one-half hour or longer. (Remember: Most of our employees receive a PAID lunch.)

3 All Principals and Assistant Principals All Administrators 24SE01, Page 2 of 4 On-call time where the employee merely leaves a telephone number and is not restricted. Training programs voluntarily attended that are unrelated to regular duties and involve no productive work. Traveling on overnight trips during nonworking hours except while performing duties or other work. How would I know if an employee is non-exempt? Typically, nonexempt employees are hourly employees. However, the easiest way to find out is to check the employee s job classification in the district s Compensation Schedule. In addition, all employees subject to the Collier Support Personnel-NEA ( CSP ) or the Collier County Association of Educational Office and Classroom Aide Personnel ( CCAEOCAP ) collective bargaining agreements are non-exempt employees. The following guidelines are provided to assist administrators in dealing with overtime issues: 1. Employees who work overtime must be compensated. 2. All administrators, managers, and others who have non-exempt employees working for them ( Supervisors ) are responsible to ensure that the provisions of this memorandum are adhered to. In addition, it is the responsibility of all Supervisors to make sure that all employees are compensated for every hour worked. 3. Overtime may be compensated for in the following manner subject to collective bargaining agreements and federal and state laws: a. Overtime Payment at one and one-half times the employee s regular rate of pay for each hour worked over 40 hours in each work week. b. Flextime may be used during the same workweek to offset any hours that could result in overtime. For example, an employee works two extra hours on Monday and Tuesday of the workweek. The administrator can let the employee go home four hours early on Friday (or any other day during the workweek) so that forty hours are not exceeded during the workweek. Flextime CANNOT be carried over from one workweek to another. c. Comp time may also be used as long as there is an agreement in place with the union or, in the case of non-union positions, a voluntary agreement between the employee and supervisor. (See additional information below.) All Principals and Assistant Principals

4 All Administrators 25SE01, Page 3 of 4 4. Authority to approve overtime payments (see 3[a] above): The superintendent shall provide an annual allocation of funds to be used for overtime purposes that will be allocated to departments and school locations. Each department and school is not authorized to spend overtime payments in excess of the budgeted amount. 5. Overtime payment, flextime, and comp time (hereinafter Overtime ) should not be granted to accomplish routine tasks; in other words, Overtime is reserved for exceptional situations when critical work must be accomplished within restricted time frames. 6. Employees are not permitted to work outside their regularly scheduled hours without obtaining prior administrative approval. This includes, but is not limited to, volunteering to come in early, to stay late, or to take work home. Are there any special record keeping requirements? Yes, this is a very important point. Federal and state laws require accurate reporting or hours worked for non-exempt employees. The district s payroll department will provide guidance in this area. Where are the special rules for com time use? Comp time, like overtime payment, is earned at one and one-half hour for every hour worked over 40 hours in the workweek. Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CCAEOCAP and CSP) may not be able to use comp time in lieu of overtime payment unless a memorandum is entered into with the bargaining agent. (Check with Human Resources before using comp time with unioncovered employees.) Also, employees can generally accrue up to 240 hours of comp time; however, where comp time is accrued at one and one-half hours for each hour of overtime worked this equates to 160 hours of actual overtime work. In addition, comp time must be used before the end of the employee s contract year. When can employee use their comp time? The law says that an employee must be permitted to use comp time within a reasonable period once the request is made: Use of the term reasonable is intended to accommodate varying work practices based on the facts and circumstances of each case. When an employer receives such a request for the use of compensatory time, that request should be honored unless to do so would be unduly disruptive. By the term unduly disruptive, the Committee means something more than mere inconvenience. For example, a request by a snow plow operator in Vermont to use 40 hours of compensatory time in February probably would be unduly disruptive. This would be true whether the request was made 48 hours or several months in advance. On the other hand, the same request by the same employee for the same number of hours in June or hunting season probably would not be unduly disruptive. All Principals and Assistant Principals

5 All Administrators 25SE01, Page 4 of 4 Several letters of interpretation have been made by the Department of Labor that state that unduly, disruptive must be more than an inconvenience to the employer: The fact that the employer will have to pay an overtime premium to a substitute is not a legitimate reason for denying leave. Can you make the employee use up their comp time? Absolutely. Opinions on this have changed over the year, but the U.S. Supreme Court resolved the issue last year: The district CAN COMPEL an employee to use their comp time. Considering that employees will need to use all comp time before the end of the contract year, it is important that administrators coordinate the use of comp time with personal days, sick leave, and vacation days. What happens if an employee still has comp time when they terminate their employment. The district will have to pay the employee subject to specific rules. Typically, the employee will be paid at their final rate of pay.