© 2024 Seyfarth Shaw LLP | www.seyfarth.com Classification Guidebook | 59 What about lunches? Is that time compensable? Bona fide meal periods are not compensable. Ordinarily 30 minutes or more is long enough for a bona fide meal period. The employee must be completely relieved from all duties and free to leave their work station. If the employee works through their meal break, or if the meal break is interrupted or cut short, the time generally must be treated as hours worked. What about breaks? Rest periods of short duration, running from 5 minutes to about 20 minutes, are treated as compensable time. Does the employee count travel as hours worked? Generally, employees will not be paid for time spent commuting to and from work. Other types of travel time, outside of the normal commute from home to work and work to home, may be compensable. The amount of compensable travel time, however, depends on the circumstances of the travel as well as applicable federal and state law. Do we compensate for a voluntary meeting or events that take place outside of regular working hours? All three of the following must be met for an event if the time is not to be counted as time worked. If the event does not meet each of these criteria, the employee must count it as time worked. (Charity events can be counted as time not worked, but to do so, they must be completely voluntary, with no pressure for employees to participate.) outside regular work hours completely voluntary not for the organization’s benefit What is the incentive overtime payment and why are we required to pay it? The FLSA requires employers to pay overtime to employees for hours worked over 40 in a workweek and to include regular incentive payments in the calculation. The company, in compliance with the FLSA, includes incentives in an employee’s regular rate when computing overtime pay. However, the amount of overtime cannot be determined until the time these payments are actually made. Until the incentive is paid, the employee receives overtime pay based only on their weekly hours and regular compensation. Then, when the incentive (bonus or commission) is paid, the employee receives additional overtime pay based on the amount of the incentive and number of overtime hours the employee worked in the designated time period. Can I require an employee to obtain approval before working overtime? Yes. However, whether authorized or not, all hours worked—including overtime hours—must be accurately recorded and must be paid. There are no exceptions to this rule. You should never
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