For Immediate Release:

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Ok, see if this scenario sounds familiar, you have an employee (or possibly several) who cannot seem to remember to clock in, or clock out. Yea, this is the stuff that drives payroll professional?s nuts. We all recognize that we can forget things from time to time (and as I get older those times seem more often), but for some employees it is an ongoing issue, they always have ?punch corrections?.
So what can we do? Can we

1. Not pay them for the days they do not punch correctly?
2. Manually adjust their time to the scheduled time and not verify actual time worked?
3. Discipline them for missed punches?
4. Give them a ?write off? and make them write 1000 times ?I must clock in and out at the correct time?? (just kidding)

The Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) is our guide in matters such as these, and while it does not specifically address the issue of how to correct an employee?s punch mistakes it does give us guidance on how the employer must pay the hourly employee.
The FLSA states that an hourly employee must be compensated for all hours they are ?suffered or permitted? to work, meaning that the employer must pay an hourly employee for the hours they work if they know or have reason to believe they worked. Under this guidance if we believe that an employee worked then we cannot withhold their pay.
If we know or believe that an employee did not clock in or out correctly we need to get the employee to tell us the proper times the punches should have been made. This week I had a report of a nursing home that had gone through a Wage and Hour Division audit. They had taken the position, if the employee fails to clock in or out properly we will pay them for the hours they were scheduled to work. As reasonable as this policy may seem, the company was required to go back and try to verify the actual time worked, pay any unpaid wages and fined for the actions.
If the time worked record for an hourly employee needs to be changed it is best policy to let the employee make the change and initial the changes. This prevents the employer from being accused of ?shorting? an employee of hours worked. Employees can be subject to disciplinary actions for failure to record time properly. This should be clearly communicated in policy form and equally and universally enforced.
You can give them a ?write off? but remember; you have to pay them to do it so make sure they clock in before they start.
If you have concerns or questions regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act and the impact on employee time calculations call 615-542-1919 or email me at gary@illuminaregroupinc.com.