FILE:  F-9.2a

Cf:  F-9.2

 

Employment Classifications, Work week, and overtime

 

 

The Central Community School Board shall comply with the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  For purposes of accurate and timely wage and salary determinations, the School Board sets forth the following guidelines.

 

EMPLOYMENT CLASSIFICATIONS

 

Each employee’s position shall be classified in accordance with FLSA regulations.  Each employee shall be issued a letter of employment when he/she is hired that shall include the appropriate FLSA classification.  The FLSA classifies employees into two (2) primary groups, as follows.

 

Exempt Employees – Exempt employees may include, but not be limited to, the Superintendent, directors, principals, and assistant principals.  Other exempt employee classifications which are not covered by overtime pay provisions, if they meet certain criteria defined in FLSA regulations, are administrative, executive, professional (all degreed educators), technical, supervisors, and computer programmers.  Such employees are referred to as “exempt” employees and shall be paid a monthly salary based upon a forty (40) hour workweek.  Hours worked do not apply to exempt employees.  Exempt employees shall be excluded from overtime eligibility, and any additional time, beyond forty (40) hours, spent in meetings, extracurricular activities, parent conferences, planning time or other responsibilities of the position shall be considered part of the exempt employee’s regular work schedule.

 

The salary of exempt employees is designed to compensate them for all hours worked, including hours in excess of eight (8) hours in one day or forty (40) hours in one week. Exempt employees are recognized as being paid a “salary,” which is defined as a uniform amount, no matter how many hours are worked in any given week.

 

Non-Exempt Employees  ̶  Non-exempt employees shall be entitled to overtime pay for all hours worked in excess of forty (40) hours in a workweek at the rate of 1½ times regular hourly rate.  Non-exempt employees shall be paid at an hourly rate or may also be paid a salary based upon an hourly rate that is the equivalent to forty (40) hours worked in a workweek.  Non-exempt employees who have a work schedule of fewer than forty (40) hours in a workweek shall not be paid overtime compensation unless the employee actually works more than forty (40) hours in a workweek.  Such employees shall be paid their regular hourly rate of pay for time worked up to forty (40) hours.

 

Any and all paid time off shall not count toward time worked for the purposes of earning overtime pay (this includes annual leave, sick leave, paid or unpaid leave of absence, intermittent leave under FMLA, holidays, bereavement, military duty, jury duty, emergency closings or any other time off without pay).

 

Non-exempt employees may also include office employees who perform non-manual labor, such as secretaries, clerks, paraprofessionals, nurses, data-processing operators, information system technicians, cafeteria managers, food service employees, maintenance staff, custodial staff, accounting/payroll/personnel department staff, skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled labor.

 

Regular Full-Time Employees - Regular full-time employees are those employees, whether exempt or non-exempt, who have been hired on a regular, full-time basis (thirty (30) or more hours per week).  Regular full-time employees shall be entitled to all School Board sponsored benefits for which they qualify.

 

Part-Time Employees - Part-time employees are those employees who have been hired to work on a part-time basis (fewer than thirty (30) hours per week on average).  Part-time employees shall not be eligible to receive School Board sponsored benefits unless otherwise mandated by federal or state regulations or other benefit plan terms.

 

Temporary Employees - Temporary employees are those employees who have been hired to work for a limited period of time, (generally, fewer than three (3) months) or on a specific project.  They may work on either a full-time (thirty (30) hours or more per week) or part-time (fewer than thirty (30) hours per week on average) basis.  Temporary employees shall not be eligible for School Board sponsored benefits unless otherwise mandated by federal or state regulations or plan terms.

 

WORK WEEK

 

The work week shall be defined as a contiguous seven (7) consecutive day period of 168 hours commencing at 12:01a.m. Thursday and running through 12:00 midnight the following Wednesday.

 

For non-exempt full-time or part-time employees, forty (40) hours worked constitutes the regularly scheduled workweek.

 

Due to the nature of school and system operations working hours and schedules may be flexibly arranged to accommodate the needs of students to the extent practicable.  The School Board reserves the right to change or modify work hours if it determines such action to be in the best interest of the school system.

 

WORK SCHEDULES

 

Work schedules for employees shall vary throughout the school system.  The work schedule for exempt employees shall vary as to time of reporting and shall continue until professional responsibilities and duties provided to students, individual schools, and the school system are completed.  Administrative meetings, curriculum development, student supervision, assigned duties, parent conferences, group or individual planning, extracurricular activities, faculty meetings.  School Board and School Board Committee meetings may require the employee to work hours beyond any stated minimum.  The Superintendent or his/her designee, consistent with the FLSA and the provisions of this policy, shall define work schedules for non-exempt employees.

 

Supervisors shall advise employees of their individual schedules.  Staffing needs and operational demands may necessitate variations in starting and ending times, as well as variations in the total hours that may be scheduled each day and week.

 

MINIMUM WAGE

 

The minimum wage paid on an hour-by-hour basis to employees whether full-time or part-time, permanent or temporary, shall be at least equal to the federal minimum wage.

 

HOURS WORKED and Overtime

 

Hours Worked

 

Hours worked shall be defined as all time from the moment an individual actually begins work (any prep such as changing clothes on-site toget ready to work is counted as time worked) until the individual finishes work for the day, except for the deduction of time spent at lunch or dinner (where applicable).

 

Travel to and from home to the reporting location or worksite does not constitute hours worked.  However, official travel for the purposes of performing their duties during an individual's regular working hours shall be considered hours worked.  For example, if the reporting site is the central office and the employee is dispatched to a school, in order to perform their assigned duties at that school, then the time spent traveling from the central office to the school and back to the central office or another school shall be considered time worked.

 

Arriving early or leaving late for the employee’s own convenience is not included in hours worked, and employees shall be prohibited from arriving more than fifteen (15) minutes prior to the start of their individual workday unless specifically permitted by their immediate supervisor.  Hours spent away from work such as paid time off or absences either excused or unexcused, shall not constitute hours worked and shall be calculated separately for compensation purposes.

 

The workday for non-exempt employees shall be eight (8) working hours unless otherwise defined.

 

Overtime

 

Non-exempt employees who work over forty (40) hours per workweek shall be compensated at an overtime rate of one and one-half (1.5 times) their regular hourly rate.  All non-exempt employees must receive advance authorization from the Superintendent or his/her designee to work overtime and shall be disciplined if they do not adhere to this policy. Administrators, school principals including assistant principals, department heads and other supervisors shall be subject to discipline for allowing non-exempt employees under their supervision to work more than forty (40) hours in a workweek without the advance approval of the Superintendent or his/her designee.

 

Time away from work, such as paid time off, holidays, sick leave, leave, or injury, shall not count as “time worked” when calculating overtime hours.

 

To calculate overtime, the School Board considers the employee’s normal work week to be forty (40) hours worked in that workweek.  When possible, advance notification of these mandatory assignments will be provided.  The School Board shall make every effort to plan required overtime with regard to its impact on the employees and needs of the school system.

 

The School Board discourages overtime work (more than forty (40) hours in a workweek) by non-exempt employees.

 

Compensation During Emergencies

 

Unless a Declaration of Emergency has been issued by the Governor of Louisiana, all School Board employees shall be expected to report to work. When a Declaration of Emergency has been issued, because of extreme weather or other specified emergency situations, employees shall not report to work except as directed by the Superintendent of his/her designee, and shall be paid at the rate of pay in force at the time of the declared emergency.

 

The Superintendent shall be authorized to determine which essential employees may be needed to work during any emergency, and in conjunction with members of the supervisory staff, shall identify essential employees by position or title.  Upon the Declaration of Emergency, all scheduled vacations for designated essential personnel shall be cancelled.  In the event of a school closure due to State of Emergency declarations, essential employees required to work during this time may be compensated at a rate determined by the Superintendent.  Every effort shall be made to minimize required work of all employees during the period of a Declared Emergency.

 

Compensatory Time

 

Nonexempt employees who work more than forty (40) hours during any workweek may, at the sole discretion of the School Board, be provided with compensatory time (Comp. Time) off in lieu of cash payment.  Compensatory time will be provided at the rate of one and one-half hours for each hour of overtime worked.  Compensatory time may be accrued up to a balance of 240 hours (i.e. 160 hours of overtime worked).  Overtime worked beyond this maximum accrual amount shall be paid in cash.  Every effort shall be made to permit the use of compensatory time at the time mutually agreed upon by the individual and the employee’s supervisor.  However, where the individual’s absence would unduly disrupt the School Board’s operations, the School Board retains the right to postpone the usage of any compensatory time.

 

Nonexempt employees shall be required to use any accumulated compensatory time.  Employees who are required to work on an announced holiday must be given equal time off within the same fiscal year.  Any time off granted to an employee who worked on an official holiday will not be considered compensatory time off, but instead be treated as a delayed holiday.  Nonexempt employees’ record of compensatory time shall be maintained by the Human Resources Department.

 

Meal Periods

 

Unless otherwise specified, employees shall be provided a lunch break of thirty (30) minutes.  Employees shall be relieved of all duties during their meal period and the half-hour does not count as a half-hour worked for the purposes of calculating pay unless the non-exempt employee is required to perform work duties during the meal period.  Employees assigned to night shift duty shall have the same lunch break as day shift employees.

 

The employee’s time card should reflect this lunch break, showing the time the break began and ended, or somehow otherwise reflect in the calculation of time worked when hours are calculated.  The employee’s supervisor shall assign the meal period for each employee.  The School Board may stagger meal schedules to provide for continuous safe and effective operation.

 

Break Periods

 

The School Board may provide two (2) paid, fifteen (15) minute breaks each eight (8) hour workday, one to be taken in the first half of the work day, and the second to be taken in the last half of the work day.  Any portion of a break period that exceeds fifteen (15) minutes will not count as work time or “hours worked”.  Employee’s daily scheduled breaks shall be set in accordance with their work schedule by their supervisor.

 

The School Board may stagger employee break times to provide for continuous safe and effective operation.  Breaks should be taken in safe areas only.

 

FLEXIBLE TIME

 

Principals or supervisors may need to adjust daily schedules of non-exempt employees to prevent non-exempt employees working more than forty (40) hours in a workweek. Accurate and complete time sheets and/or records of the actual hours worked during a workweek shall be signed by each non-exempt employee and supervisor and submitted to the payroll department.

 

Non-exempt employees shall not be allowed to begin their duties prior to their scheduled start time, and supervisors shall monitor sign-in procedures to prevent such employees performing duties prior to the start time.

 

RECORDING OVERTIME HOURS

 

  1. Written authorizations for overtime requests may exist in different forms, i.e., memo, letter or email.  The document must contain the explanation of the nature of the work performed.  The document with approval signature by the supervisor and Superintendent or his/her designee shall be attached to the timesheet.

  2. Overtime requests must contain the dates or period of time for the overtime work, the name(s) and job title(s) of employees working overtime, and the purpose/justification for the overtime.

  3. Employees shall record overtime hours daily on timesheets to show the number of hours worked in excess of the regular hours of the day.

 

PART-TIME IN DIFFERENT CAPACITY

 

If non-exempt individuals are employed in one capacity but voluntarily work part-time in a different capacity, on an occasional or regular basis, the hours logged in the secondary voluntary capacity shall be counted as hours worked for overtime purposes.

 

Exempt employees shall be permitted to work varying assignments and be paid a stipend that is hourly, weekly, developmental, seasonal, or for mentoring/tutoring that shall not constitute earnings paid as overtime or otherwise interfere with their exempt classification.

 

VOLUNTEERS

 

A volunteer is defined as an individual who receives no compensation or who is paid expenses, reasonable benefits, or a nominal fee to perform the services for which the individual volunteered and such services are offered freely and without coercion, direct or implied, from the School Board.  If an employee wishes to volunteer, the volunteer services must be different from the services the employee is employed to perform.  The Superintendent or his/her designee shall approve any exception.

 

EXEMPT EMPLOYEE DEDUCTIONS

 

Deductions from pay may be permissible when an exempt employee: is absent from work for one (1) or more full days for personal reasons other than sickness or disability; for absences of one or more full days due to sickness or disability if the deduction is made in accordance with a bona fide benefit plan, policy or practice of providing compensation for salary lost due to illness; to offset amounts employees receive as jury or witness fees, or for military pay; for penalties imposed in good faith for infractions of safety rules of major significance; or for unpaid disciplinary suspensions of one (1) or more full days imposed in good faith for workplace conduct rule infractions.  An exempt employee may file a grievance in accordance with School Board policy F-4, Complaints and Grievance, if there is a dispute or objection to deduction from pay.

 

SPECIAL SITUATIONS

 

Non-exempt employees shall not be permitted to volunteer to perform work that is part of their normal job duties.  For example, a custodian may not volunteer to clean up after school events (ball games) without such time counting as hours worked during a workweek.  A custodian may volunteer to coach an athletic team; however, an employee who is the parent of a child in an activity may volunteer for work similar to their regular duties upon special request and permission.

 

Meetings, when authorized or required shall be counted as hours worked for non-exempt employees.

 

In-service training, when authorized or required, shall be counted as hours worked for non-exempt employees.

 

Waiver of Rights - non-exempt employees shall not be allowed to waive their rights under FLSA.

 

Vocational students performing work as part of a curriculum are considered students and not workers; therefore, wages are not mandatory under FLSA.  Students helping in office capacities for short periods of time are considered volunteers and not employees.  The payment of wages is not mandatory under FLSA.

 

Release time - the Superintendent may grant exempt employees release time from their duties in the event of required extended periods of duty due to extreme emergencies such as some natural disasters or man-made disasters.  Such release time shall not affect the orderly operation of the school system.

 

Flexible time (flex time) - A principal or supervisor may adjust the hours and schedule of a non-exempt employee within a workweek to avoid an employee working more than forty (40) hours in a workweek.  An employee may be given a different reporting time or quitting time due to a scheduled evening requirement during the workweek.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF POLICY

 

Employees shall be provided a copy of this policy and be required to sign a statement to acknowledge their receipt of the policy.

 

Revised:  July, 2018

Revised:  July 13, 2020

 

 

Ref:    29 USC 201 et seq. (The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended)

La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§17:84.1, 17:196, 17:197, 17:197.1, 17:198, 17:199, 17:418

Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority et al., 469 U.S. 528 (1985)

Board minutes, 7-30-18, 7-13-20

 

Central Community School Board