Fair Labor Standards Act - Human Resources

A non-exempt employee is defined as an individual who is paid on an hourly basis and is entitled to compensatory time or overtime pay.  Compensatory time and overtime is earned at a rate of an hour and one-half (1.5) for every hour worked in excess of forty (40) hours in a workweek.

All time spent by an employee performing a task or activity for NMU or under the control and direction of NMU will be credited to the non-exempt employee as compensable time, or hours of work. This time can include, but is not limited to: training, pre- and post-shift activities, working through lunch, and working from home/outside of the home office.

Approved travel time on behalf of NMU is generally considered work time if it occurs during the course of the regular workday. Travel outside of normal working hours and overnight travel is reviewed on a case by case basis to determine what time is compensable.

Commuting to and from work and home is not considered work time. This assumes that the employee is performing no other work activities while commuting.

In most cases, yes, all overtime must be pre-approved.  Supervisors and employees should discuss how to communicate short-notice or emergency situations that may lead to overtime. Each department will be cognizant of the budget due to the additional cost of overtime hours.

All overtime hours worked by non-exempt employees must be paid, even if unapproved. This does not limit a supervisor’s ability, and responsibility, to establish rules regarding communication, approvals, and corrective measures.

Yes, flexible schedules are allowed within the same workweek (Sunday – Saturday) with the approval from your supervisor. For example, if an employee normally works eight hour days and is assigned to work an NMU event for two (2) hours during the evening, the employee may be granted to take two (2) hours of time off at another time during the same workweek.

Non-exempt TOP, AP, and Non-Represented employees will continue using WebTime.  Approved hours over 40 in a workweek need to be recorded as Comp Time Earned or as Overtime, based on your discussions with your supervisor.

Recording Comp Time Earned must be manually calculated; i.e. if an employee worked 42 hours in a workweek three (3) hours would be input into Comp Time Earned (2 hours x 1.5 earning rate = 3 hours earned).

Overtime pay is calculated at 1.5 times an employee’s base rate directly within the payroll system, so no manual calculation is necessary.  In the same example above, the employee would input two (2) hours into Overtime.

Managers and supervisors may need to set new expectations and change department schedules or behaviors in order to manage hours worked within budgets. Discussions may include:

• Expectations to seek approval for overtime.
• Guidelines for working remotely or outside of normal work hours.
• Adjustments to work schedules when work must occur outside of normal business hours.
• How to track and report time worked.