Key Factors that Make PTO Work

Marques, an associate in the New York office of Holland & Knight LLP, offered her tips at a recent webinar sponsored by BLR® and HR Hero®.

• Make sure that all parts of the company are on the same page. Payroll, posted policies, and employment handbooks should all agree, says Marques.
• Make sure the payroll system can account for accruing PTO time.
• Avoid individually negotiating different benefits from the established policy. All peer employees should be getting roughly the same benefits. Sometimes new candidates negotiate that they want what they had on their old job, and the temptation is to say, OK, that’s fair, but try not to do that, Marques says.
• Make sure that supervisors are well-trained to address abuse of the PTO system before it gets out of control. Remember that they are not HR professionals; but they have to deal with these issues, says Marques.
• Be consistent to avoid claims of discrimination with sticky issues like religious holidays, disabilities, or other disparate treatment where employee can claim that they are being treated differently because of membership on protected categories, different child-caring responsibilities, age, etc.

Boundaries for Paid Time Off

Make sure your supervisors are aware of wage/hour issues concerning employees who are out on leave.

For example, says Marques, be careful about calling/ e-mailing workers who are on vacation. They may claim that they are due wages or they are due back the day off. (You might say, “I’m just sending this now, I don’t expect you to act on it until next week when you are back to work.”)

Also be aware of remote access, which can create similar problems, Marques says.

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State Leave Law Topics

Pay particular attention to state laws, says Marques. They may have provisions concerning such areas as:

• Time to vote
• Bone marrow donor
• Family medical leave
• Jury duty
• Military leave
• Sexual assault or domestic violence victim

Watch Out for Furloughs

Private employers need to be careful with exempt employees, says Marques. Under federal law, an employer may establish weeklong furlough periods in which no work is done by exempt employees for the entire week. However, these periods may not be a means to evade minimum salary test.

Only under certain circumstances may long-term furlough plans that reduce exempt work schedules be lawful, and the minimum salary test must still be met for exempt workers, cautions Marques.

For hourly employees, watch for eligibility for unemployment on a weekly basis, says Marques.

Managing PTO—just one more daily challenge. In HR, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. Like FMLA intermittent leave, overtime hassles, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, and then on top of that, whatever the agencies and courts throw in your way.

You need a go-to resource, and our editors recommend the “everything-HR-in-one website,” HR.BLR.com. As an example of what you will find, here are some policy recommendations concerning e-mail, excerpted from a sample policy on the website:

Privacy. The director of information services can override any individual password and thus has access to all e-mail messages in order to ensure compliance with company policy. This means that employees do not have an expectation of privacy in their company e-mail or any other information stored or accessed on company computers.

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E-mail review. All e-mail is subject to review by management. Your use of the  e-mail system grants consent to the review of any of the messages to or from you in the system in printed form or in any other medium.

Solicitation. In line with our general policy, e-mail must not be used to solicit for outside business ventures, personal parties, social meetings, charities, membership in any organization, political causes, religious causes, or other matters not connected to the company’s business.

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