FLSA UPDATE August 18, 2016

Transcription

1 FLSA UPDATE August 18, 2016

2 WHAT IS FLSA? Federal law designed to protect workers from abuse by employers. Exempt Must work until the job is done Not entitled to overtime pay or comp time Non-exempt May only work 40 hours per week or must be given overtime pay or comp time Working over 40 hours must be pre-approved by the supervisor Employee has a choice of overtime pay or comp time

3 WHAT IS CHANGING AND WHY? Exemption threshold being raised. More people will be non-exempt (entitled to overtime or comp time). Threshold has not been updated for many years and leaves many lower paid workers unprotected from involuntary overtime.

4 WHO IS EXEMPT AND NON-EXEMPT? Determined by a duties test regarding scope of responsibility. NOT a salary test. Salary threshold is $47,476. Having a salary above the threshold DOES NOT automatically make you exempt. If you are determined to be exempt, your salary must be at or above $47,476. HR looking at all job classifications to identify by job title who is exempt and nonexempt. Seeking consistency across UGA and University System. We expect to have a proposed list for COE in late August. In late September we will meet with HR to discuss exceptions, reclassifications, salary increases, etc.

5 HOW WILL THINGS CHANGE? If you move from exempt to non-exempt: You cannot work more than 40 hours per week without prior permission from your supervisor. You cannot work through your lunch. You cannot work from home after hours (evenings, weekends) answering s, completing paperwork, etc. unless you have a telecommuting agreement in place, and the work does not exceed 40 hours per week. You will be paid every 2 weeks instead of once a month. You will need to log in to Kronos to confirm your hours worked and leave every 2 weeks. Most non-exempt staff will only need to log in to Kronos once every pay period to confirm hours worked and leave. Most will not need to clock in every day.

6 HOW WILL I CONFINE MY WORK TO 40 HOURS? Supervisors will work with you to Streamline work Adjust duties Provide cross-training Manage time (including flex time and quiet time) If you have ideas, please share them with your supervisor and colleagues (in your unit and with others with the same work responsibilities)!

7 WHEN DOES THIS HAPPEN? UGA plans to implement on November 17, (still subject to change) You will receive a full paycheck in October. You will receive one paycheck in November that will be approximately 60% of your regular monthly check. You will receive 2 checks in December before the break.

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10 WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE? Training to be offered: Using Kronos For staff who must confirm work and leave hours For supervisors Managing workload For supervisors Rethinking your budget For those switching from monthly to bi-weekly payroll

11 WHAT S NEXT? Holding pattern Until we get a list of positions to be considered non-exempt As soon as we have more information, we will share it via COEfyi, SRG list, DH and unit head s. Our goal is to be transparent with what we know. The challenge is that few things are finalized at this point.

12 BREAKS Non-exempt employees who are required to work six or more hours per day should be given an unpaid meal break of at least 30 minutes. During the meal period, the non-exempt employee must be completely relieved from duty; otherwise, he/she must be paid for work time. It is not necessary that the employee leave the premises if s/he is otherwise completely freed from duties during the meal period. Supervisors determine the schedule for lunch breaks. Employees may not forego meal periods to accumulate extra time off in the future or to shorten the workday. Lunch periods for exempt employees are not required but are highly recommended. For employees who work an eight hour shift in an around-the-clock operation (e.g., campus police), a 30-minute meal break is not required, but the employee must be given the opportunity to eat while maintaining active on-duty status. If the work situation permits, a supervisor may authorize two 15-minute breaks, one in mid-morning and one in mid-afternoon. During the break period, employees may leave their work areas if they have the approval of their supervisors. Where it is necessary to have someone on duty at all times, care should be taken to ensure work assignments are covered. The needs of the job must be met first, and in some cases, breaks are not possible. When provided, breaks are paid time. Employees may not forego breaks to accumulate extra time off in the future or to shorten the workday. (Revised 4/18/03)

13 Fair Labor Standards Act FAQs Updated What is the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)? FLSA is a federal labor law that spells out working conditions for employees in the public and private sectors, including overtime, minimum wages, child labor protections, and the Equal Pay Act. Why is it being changed? The portion of FLSA that relates to overtime is being updated to index with the Bureau of Labor Statistics salary data. This portion of the law has not changed since 2004 and leaves many lower paid employees unprotected by requirements for overtime pay. What are exempt and non-exempt employees? An employee who is exempt is hired to do a job and must work until the job is done, even if it means working more than 40 hours in a week, with no entitlement to overtime pay or comp time. An employee who is non-exempt is hired for 40 hours per week, and all work must be confined to those 40 hours. If the work is to exceed 40 hours, prior approval must be obtained, and the employee is entitled to either overtime pay or comp time. How is FLSA changing? The threshold for deciding which positions are exempt and non-exempt is being raised. Currently, the bar for determining whether an employee is exempt is quite low, so most staff are exempt (expected to work until the job is done with no overtime or comp time). We are waiting on Human Resources to give us a list of job titles/classifications that will be exempt under the revised law, but we expect that most staff positions in the College of Education will now be non-exempt. Although there is a salary limit of $47,476 proposed in the law, the salary is not the only determining factor for whether an employee is exempt or non-exempt. Rather, HR will be using a duties test as required by the law to determine which job titles are exempt based on scope of responsibility. Decisions will be made on the basis of title, not on an individual basis. We will have the opportunity to propose reclassification of some individuals, but we expect those opportunities to be limited as there is a need to be consistent across UGA and the USG with positions. We will provide updates as we get them from HR. We anticipate getting a preliminary list of exempt and non-exempt staff by early September and having a meeting to discuss possible changes with HR in late September. After we get a final list, we will begin processing personnels. What does this mean for me? If you are currently non-exempt, there is no change. If you are currently exempt and move to non-exempt, you will be paid on a bi-weekly basis rather than monthly, and your working hours will be tracked in Kronos. For most people, this will require you to log into Kronos once every two weeks and verify your hours worked (adjusting for leave taken as needed) just prior to payroll being run. In general, most people will have set working hours and will not need to clock in to Kronos every day.

14 Non-exempt employees may not work over 40 hours per week without prior permission from a supervisor. Thus, we will need to work together to adjust workload of some people who routinely work more than 40 hours per week. Options for adjusting workload include crosstraining others to do a portion of the work, streamlining some tasks, and adjusting work hours to provide more quiet uninterrupted time to complete complex tasks. (Note that flex time must be documented in writing and pre-approved.) Supervisors will work with staff who are affected to discuss ways to manage workload to keep it within 40 hours per week. While our goal is for all non-exempt employees to work only 40 hours per week, if there are extenuating circumstances that necessitate working beyond 40 hours, the employee may choose whether to receive additional compensation (at 1.5 times the hourly rate) or comp time (at 1.5 times the number of hours worked beyond 40). If overtime pay is elected, it will be paid in the pay period in which it is earned. If comp time is elected, it must be used by the end of the following quarter and paid out if not used in that timeframe. The limitation of working only 40 hours per week also means that non-exempt employees should not take a working lunch and continue working while eating. All employees are entitled to a 30-minute lunch each day, and under FLSA working during lunch constitutes working beyond the 40-hour limit. In addition, unless there is a telecommuting agreement in place, non-exempt staff should not be working from home in the evenings and on weekends as this is a violation of the 40-hour work week. Thus, we will need to recall any electronic equipment (e.g., laptops, tablets) that non-exempt employees have off-campus as providing this equipment to staff suggests that we expect them to work outside of the office. When does this take effect? The effective date by law is December 1, 2016, but UGA is planning to implement it by November 17, Training/Professional Learning Opportunities In October and November HR will be offering Kronos training for staff who will need to log their time in Kronos and for supervisors who sign off on time sheets in Kronos. They will also offer training for managers/supervisors about managing the workload of non-exempt staff and communicating with staff about changes. There will also be sessions to assist with thinking about and planning for the financial impact of moving from monthly to bi-weekly checks. Questions? Contact Denise Spangler (dspangle@uga.edu) or Andy Garber (agarber@uga.edu).