Accurate payroll record saved company from lawsuit
Filed under: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Security and law, Time and attendance
Here’s another reason you might want to invest in technology to help Payroll keep accurate records of the time employees work:
They provide key evidence and can help companies avoid various types of lawsuits.
In one recent case, an employee sued after she was fired for missing too many days of work without authorization.
She claimed her most recent string of absences was because of a medical condition, meaning she should’ve been protected under FMLA.
But when she requested FMLA, the company looked through her payroll records. It turned out, she’d only worked 1,248.8 hours in the previous 12 months — making her 1.2 hours short of FMLA eligibility. So the company went through with her termination.
In court, the judge agreed with the company’s decision. The law’s the law, and the employee wasn’t eligible for FMLA protection.
Cite: Pirant v. U.S. Postal Service.
Comments
4 Comments on Accurate payroll record saved company from lawsuit
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Cheryl on
Wed, 8th Apr 2009 7:29 am
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Susanna on
Wed, 8th Apr 2009 2:11 pm
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sandy on
Wed, 8th Apr 2009 2:42 pm
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Janis on
Wed, 8th Apr 2009 5:38 pm
So how does one calculate this when its an exempt employee who isn’t required to maintain timesheets?
I’d like to know that as well.
The only exempt employees we have work full-time. Which comes out to way more than 1250 hours anyway. They are all working at least 1800 hours. I didn’t think you could pay people a salary that were part time.
We have all our salaried employees fill out time sheets so we can keep track. We also need the accurate number of hours worked for L&I purposes as in Washington State we pay for L&I based on hours worked, not salary.
