Legal Question in Employment Law in Georgia
in the loop
I just need to know if this is considered legal where an employer to substitute or take away from employees their paid vacation, personal time or sick time? example: beginning December 22, 2002 overtime policy has changed. If we take vacation or personal time during a pay period in which we work overtime it will be treated the same as sick time. This means the time taken for vacation or personal time will be taken out of our hours worked then overtime hours are calculated. For example, if I turn in a time sheet for this pay period showing 46.50 hours, with 4.00 hours personal time and 7.75 hours overtime, I will be paid 2.50 hours overtime at 1 1/2 hourly rate (2.5 hours is the time over 40 hours worked).
There is a new policy called Power Hours where every employee must only sit and process their work, they can not move to go to the restrooms, nor talk, nor anything other than processing for a 3 hour period starting from 8am until 11am each morning for 3 consecutive weeks. I just need to know if any of this is legal?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: in the loop
It is probably all legal. As to the change in your vacation plan, a company is entitled to change the way they treat vacation time at their discretion as long as they don't illegally discriminate in the way they operate the policy based, for example, on employees' race, religion, sex, etc. However, if there was an old policy under which vacation was accrued that specifically stated that vacation hours would count as hours worked for overtime purposes, there might be an argument that any vacation time accrued as of the date of the change should be treated under the old plan, but this may not be an especially strong argument.
As to the processing time, there are no federal or Georgia laws prohibiting working for a three hour period without a break and with a rule of no talking, at least regarding employees over the age of 18.
The foregoing is general information only, not specific legal advice. No attorney/client relationship has been created or should be implied. Consult with your own attorney before taking legal action.
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