Common question: Can eligible employees use COVID PTO time bank hours for COVID testing?
Reasons an employee can use COVID PTO**:
- If Occupational Health Services (OHS) sends the employee home until they can be tested for COVID-19, the employee can use COVID PTO
- If the employee tests positive for COVID-19.
Reasons an employee cannot use COVID PTO for testing:
- If the COVID test is negative and OHS advises the employee to remain home anyway. The employee should use PTO for this situation.
** Only if the employee is eligible to use COVID PTO and has remaining hours available.
Employees transferring from one Punch Time Clock Device (TCD) to another
When employees transfer from one punch TCD group to another, the dates in Kaba may not update correctly resulting in employees unable to punch the new clock successfully. Information Technology Services (ITS) is aware of the issue and are working to identify a fix. An update will be sent once it’s fixed.
In the meantime, please submit help desk tickets to 4help@umich.edu when this issue arises. The ITS team will manually update the Kaba system so the employee can once again begin punching.
Example of Maintain Time Reporter Data for an employee moving from one department using punch timekeeping to another:
Defining Monthly Salaried Pay - A Case Study
Exempt employees are paid a salary each month that is equal to their annual salary divided by 12. This results in a consistent paid salary each month even though the number of hours worked in each month varies. An exempt employee's monthly pay amount is NOT calculated based on hours worked.
There are two ways an exempt employee may have their monthly salary prorated:
1) working a partial month
2) due to partial effort or FTE
For an employee working 40 hours a week, the total number of hours in a month can range from 160 - 184 hours, which equates to between 20-23 work days. For part-time exempt employees the annual rate is prorated by the FTE, resulting in a reduced annual and monthly rate. If an employee starts or stops employment such that they are active for only part of the month then the salary for that month is proportional using this formula:
(number of days worked/ total work days in the month) x monthly salary
Example of partial month worked:
An employee with a 1.0 FTE terminates on August 20, and their monthly base salary is $3000. There are 22 total work days in the month of August and the employee was active for 14 of those days.
How to find prorated salary for the month: (14/22)*3000 = $1,909.09
Example due to partial effort or FTE:
An employee with a 1.0 FTE reduces their appointment on August 20, 2021 to .75 FTE and their monthly base salary at 1.0 FTE is $3000. 14 days out of the 22 total work days are paid at the 1.0 FTE rate and 8 days out of the 22 today workdays are paid at the .75 FTE rate.
How to find prorated total salary for the month: [(14/22)*($3000*1.0)] + [(8/22)*($3000*.75)]= $1909.09 + $818.18 = $2,727.27
Next week we’ll talk about the use of OTR or ASH codes for exempt employees eligible for additional compensation at an hourly rate (requires an approved agreement by the Michigan Medicine Compensation Team or included in a bargained-for employees bargaining agreement).
FLSA (Fair Labor Standard Act) rules for deducting pay from exempt employees
In general, if an exempt (monthly paid) employee works any part of a week they must be paid the full salary amount for that week. Deductions from pay are allowed in some circumstances. Refer to the FLSA Overtime Security Advisor (compensation requirements) website for further details.
Some examples of deductions from pay that ARE allowed:
- When an employee is absent from work for one or more full days for personal reasons other than sickness or disability;
- For unpaid disciplinary suspensions of one or more full days imposed in good faith for workplace conduct rule infractions;
- In the employee's initial or terminal week of employment if the employee does not work the full week, or
- For unpaid leave taken by the employee under the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
Some examples of deductions from pay NOT allowed:
- A deduction of a day's pay because the employer was closed due to inclement weather;
- A deduction of three days pay because the exempt employee was absent for jury duty;
- A deduction for a two-day absence due to a minor illness when the employer does not have a bona fide sick leave plan, policy or practice of providing wage replacement benefits; and
- A deduction for a partial day absence.
We can require exempt employees to use their paid time off (PTO) for those cases listed in the NOT allowed listing above.
Employees returning from LOA and Terminating on the same day
When an employee returns from a leave of absence and terminates on the same day within the current pay period, the system erroneously expects for there to be time in the timesheet. That is because the system considers the employee to have been active for at least one day in the pay period, even though the employee had no time to report.
At this time, it’s not possible to prevent employees in this situation from showing on the Missing Time Report. If your department receives a Missing Time notification for an employee returning from LOA and terminating on the same day, contact your pay analyst to request the employee be manually removed from Missing Time status.
ITS is currently working to identify a systemic fix for this issue. When the issue is resolved, we’ll be sure to share that information in a future weekly communication.
To find previous editions of Timekeeper Updates, or to request to be added or removed from the Timekeepers Network email group, visit the Timekeeping & Pay on the MMHR website.
If you have further questions, please reach out to your pay analyst directly. If you do not know who your pay analyst is, please check here. We are experiencing a high volume of calls and emails during this time, so we appreciate your patience as we work through this rapidly changing environment to provide you with the most up to date information.