For example, if an employee works from 8 am - 4 pm and says they took their lunch break from 4 pm - 5 pm as an excuse to leave early.Įmployees also need to take their required breaks so the employer doesn’t have to pay unapproved overtime because workers decided to keep going when they needed to clock out and rest. Employees can be disciplined for not taking their breaks or not taking them at the right time if it is clearly stated in the employee handbook. While this law protects employees from not getting paid for work they did, it also protects employers. If an employee says they worked from 8 am - 5 pm, an employer can’t record an hour-long lunch unless a manager verifies the break as well. When adjusting an employee’s schedule, it is illegal for an employer to dock time for breaks or lunch unless the employee actually took that time. While the main clock-in and clock-out process typically isn’t confusing for employees, there may be some confusion as to when employees should clock out for breaks - and what HR can do if they don’t.īreaks apply to both 15-30 minute increments set out by the department of labor and 30-60 minute lunch breaks created by the company. This shows that the employee exhibited a pattern of behavior where they refused to use the company time clock tools or disregarded comments from management on how to clock in, rather than punishing employees for the occasional human error that most people are prone to. Most companies that implement similar measures create a process with verbal and written warnings, followed by probation, and then termination for employees who won’t clock in if there are a certain number of violations over a set period of time. Any changes to the policy or handbook should be reviewed with your staff so they understand the repercussions of not clocking in. If you do plan to set up disciplinary measures for failing to clock in and out, make sure you write them in your employee handbook. In this case, the burden then falls on the manager to make sure that employee is clocking in and to talk to them if the problem persists. For example, a human resources representative can contact that employee’s manager to alert them to the time clock issue. If an employer can’t dock an employee’s pay for failing to clock in or out, they can take other measures to reinforce the importance of accurately measuring time worked. What Disciplinary Options Do Employers Have? Employees must be paid for the exact number of hours they worked, regardless of whether or not they remembered to clock in. Oftentimes, employers ask if they can dock the pay of employees who fail to clock in or out - or withhold pay entirely that day. “The Act requires no particular form for the records, but does require that the records include certain identifying information about the employee and data about the hours worked and the wages earned.Each employer shall preserve for at least three years payroll records, collective bargaining agreements, sales and purchase records.” This means that if your employee forgets to clock in and still works a full day, your payroll team has to adjust the schedule to account for the employee’s hours worked, and pay that team member accordingly. What Are the Federal Recordkeeping Requirements?Īccording to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers need to keep records on the number of hours each of their employees worked - regardless of whether their employees clock in and clock out. It is also important for employers to know if employees are clocking in. Learn what the law says about employees who don’t clock in and what managers can do about it in this quide we created for you. This has lead some employers and staffing agencies asking: do I really have to pay these employees? If they don’t record their hours properly, how can I know that they are honest about their times they arrived and left? Regardless of how frustrating these mistakes are, employers still have to pay their employees. Large businesses spend hours each month training employees how to clock in and making adjustments when they forget to correctly account for their hours. This isn’t unique to small companies with new time management policies, either. One of the biggest frustrations employers face is getting employees to clock in and clock out at work.
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