Legal Question in Employment Law in California
Hi, I work at a California professional CPA firm as a salaried, exempt, tax professional staff. A few highlights that may be relevant for my question:
1. Management sends the tax department an email each week stating how many minimum hours staff is supposed to work. The minimum ranges anywhere between 55-70 hours per week.
2. Management requires staff to document all time worked (billable and non-billable) each day or by the end of the week through time sheets
3. Management requires staff to use PTO for any day worked less than 8 hrs, even if we have worked over 40 for the entire week.
4. Management requires staff to work Saturdays
5. Management requires staff to adhere to company hours 9am-6pm even during times when the minimum weekly hours are 70. Staff is rated poorly for arriving to work after 9am, but it is overlooked when they stay after 6pm.
6. If staff is approved for planned PTO/vacation time, managers expect them to make the time up as much as possible. For instance, if staff plans for 3 days of vacation, they will be expected to work an additional 24 hours either the same week, the week before, or the week after their vacation.
My questions:
Would any of the above points or a combination of them destroy a staff's exempt status and entitle them to overtime, and possible double-time?
Could there be any other potential legal remedies for the staff employee(s)?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Whether a worker is exempt or nonexempt depends on their duties. If you a worker is misclassified as exempt, he/she is owed overtime pay if he/she works over 8 hours in a workday OR over 40 in a workweek. A PTO or vacation policy is irrelevant to whether one is exempt or nonexempt.
The manner in which an employee is paid can sometimes have an effect on whether the employee is exempt or non-exempt. However, it does not appear that any of the above factors would render the staff employees non-exempt.
The question then arises whether these "staff employees" perform exempt or non-exempt duties. If the staff employees are not CPAs, then there is a good chance they are non-exempt based on the duties they perform.
You should speak with an employment lawyer ASAP regarding these staff employees and whether they are are exempt or non-exempt.
Do not be so sure just because you do tax work you are overtime exempt. Tax preparers have been found to NOT be overtime exempt. You may want to visit my website, big4lawsuit.com which discusses what I believe to be the large scale misclassification by CPA firms of employees as overtime exempt. I would be pleased to discuss your situation with you confidentially and without cost or obligation. Leon Greenberg, 800-257-4841
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