I am a manager at a small business. We have switched all of our time clock needs to Time Clock Plus. Well, we have a bunch of teenagers working for us, and they miss a lot of punches. The general thought of the rest of the managers is that if they forget to clock in, they dont get paid for the whole day. It is extremely easy to fix these hours in the admin part of the program. Is there anything legally where we are not obligated to not pay them? I'm cool with it either way, they should remember to clock in if they want to get paid. I could see a fine of some sort, but not paying them for the whole day seems kind of extreme. Any advice is appreciated.
Really? Unless every employee has signed something stating that if they don't punch in they don't get paid, you'll have a lawsuit on your hands. Pay them, and reconsider your management career.
If you don't pay them, then they'll probably start punching their timecards. If you fine them for it, expect blowback. But if you expressly tell them they WILL NOT be paid unless they punch in, and they don't, kinda hard to blame you.
hahaha...he's back... although I tend to agree, if its easy on an admin part, i would say have them do extra etc if they continually forget...there has to be consequences...
I'm fine with him having the employees signing something stating that from now on you have to punch in to get paid. But it sounds more like he's seeing if he can get away with not paying folks who he knew worked the hours.
Sounds like it to me too, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, and also suggesting that he make them all sign something/agree to punch in or else not get paid going forward.
So if an employee has the last shift on a Friday and the first shift on the following Saturday and forgets to punch out Friday night, does he get paid for the 12 hours in between his shifts?
No, he doesn't get paid for that time at all, since there is no way to account for when he arrived/left and he agreed that he would not be compensated for that time if he did not properly record it. Of course, I'm sure a good lawyer could make anything possible.
Lack of timesheets makes it hard for revenue accounting to do their job (so I've been told). Our company employs (but loosely enforces) and 3-strike policy. On the third strike, you're fired. Everyone still gets paid though. Though timesheets for the pay period are a bit different than timecards you punch in every time you arrive at work. We just submit one self-filled timesheet every pay period.
Texas payday law- How an employee is paid must be in accordance to a written agreement. If an employee has any proof of services rendered and valid proof of employment then he must be paid, the only question would be to determine the hours worked. In the case given there should be a written policy for clocking in-out You can terminate the employee. But if you withhold wages for hours worked expect to lose a lawsuit or at least be in trouble with TWC
Anyone thinking that this has any chance of being legal should think again. Until the "less government" crowd kills it, check out the Fair Labor Standards Act. Edit: there are other ways to address this as a work rule violation, but you can not withhold pay.
I'm pretty sure the burden of knowing when your employees work is on the employer. You can try not paying your employees if you'd like, but I foresee bigger headaches when the Texas Workforce Commission and maybe some personal lawyers start contacting you. Create some missed punch forms and tell your employees to clock in and out. Give them less hours if they keep forgetting to clock in and out or fire them, but do not think you can just not pay somebody for work they actually did.
This - you should not refuse to pay employees for any reason if you know work has been performed. The way to solve this problem is to institute disciplinary action for failure to clock in (or clock out).
haha so true about the career advice. The way the owner runs the business baffles me. I am currently a business major and everything I am learning about how to run things, the owner and the rest of management sometimes does the complete opposite. Im stuck between a rock and a hard place. I have a year left of school and I can go get another job. Im trying to just stick it out until then but each day I have to pretend to act like they do, which is how to not run a business. Im gonna drop the bomb about how its illegal to with hold wages. We used to have actual time cards. The reason it is a major issue is that this Time Clock Plus, is each employee is issued a swipe card that they keep with them. We cant keep these cards by the clock in station because the cards have certain privileges that some other employees do not.
I had one job when I was a teenager where, if you didn't clock in, but your manager knew you were there, he wrote down 15 minutes after your scheduled start time on your time card. You basically lost 15 minutes of pay. I don't know how well it worked. I never forgot to clock in.
You are legally obligated to pay them. If they have a printed schedule and you have no record of them calling in sick that day, not showing up, etc., then you will have a lawsuit on your hands if you don't pay them.
