MAY 2004: As a result of the accusations, I was suspended, without pay, pending an internal investigation for, I kid you not, a co-worker accusing me of harassing her by clapping my hands and signing "Pink Cadillac", and another saying, I was teasing her when I asked her to say my name and that of the manager to see if I could distinguish the two. Another co-worker accused me of harassing her by putting an arm around her shoulders while standing next to her. This same co-worker, who hugged me twice before witnesses.
AUGUST 2004
New FLSA White Collar Exemption Rules Offers Incentives to Employers
The revised Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) regulations, which take effect on August
23, 2004, gives incentives to employers to amend their company policies to: (1) reflect that
employees may receive unpaid suspensions as discipline for violating workplace conduct policies; and
(2) emphasize the company’s prohibition of improper pay deductions and explain
the complaint procedure for reporting improper deductions. Such revisions to company policies will allow employers to take advantage of opportunities to: (1) make full-day deductions for violations of workplace conduct rules; and (2) avoid penalties of improper deductions through the regulations’ safe harbor provisions.
Full-Day Deductions for Violating Workplace Conduct Rules.
In general, to avoid destroying an employee’s “exempt” status, an employer must pay an employee for the entire week if the employee worked any part of that week.
Because of this general rule, prior to the amended regulations, employers could not discipline an employee with unpaid suspensions in less than whole-week increments when an employee violated a workplace conduct rule (other than safety rules of a major significance) such as an employer’s sexual harassment or workplace violence policy.
This resulted in employers sometimes disciplining a salaried exempt employee more harshly than it would a non-exempt employee for the same policy violation (i.e., the exempt employee would receive an unpaid suspension for a whole week while the non-exempt employee would receive an unpaid suspension for two days).
The amended regulations, however, revised the law to allow for full-day deductions as
discipline for workplace conduct rule infractions. Employers may only take advantage of this new rule if the workplace conduct rules are in writing, applicable to all employees, and specific enough to put employees on notice that they may be subject to unpaid disciplinary suspensions.
CAN YOU CONNECT THE NAMES WITH THE FACES?
AUTHORS
NEWTON J. CHU
SHERI-ANN S.L. LAU CLARK
JAMES D. DOUGLAS
ROGER W. FONSECA
TAMARA M. GERRARD
JEFFREY S. HARRIS
ROBERT S. KATZ
ELLEN NOMURA "How Can We Help You Today" KAWASHIMA
JOHN L. KNOREK
JOHN MACKEY
ERNEST C. "CARY" MOORE III
KALANI MORSE
RICHARD M. RAND
HEATHER M. RICKENBRODE
PAUL M. SAITO
WAYNE S. YOSHIGAI
