So I am writing about the situation my girlfriend is having at work. The company she works for handles the medical coding and billing for many hospitals all across the nation. What I am concerned with is, that for the few remaining weeks of the year, the company is forcing everybody who works there to put in a minimum of eight hours of overtime to finish the necessary work. This I understand is not illegal in anyway, but there is more to the situation. The company does not offer vacation time, but rather what they call "PDO's" for paid days off. My girlfriend has 2 days remaining which she much use up before the first of the year or else they will be lost. She was planning to take one during this week, one during next week, and then she would have Christmas day off as well. So, she would be taking eight paid hours off each week which she must use up, and also work the eight overtime hours which are required by management. Management is telling her that if she uses her PDO's during these last two weeks, she will not be compensated for the overtime which she has worked. She will only receive a paycheck for 40 hours instead of 48. I realize that they would not be required to pay 40 hours of straight pay, and 8 hours of overtime.... but should she be entitled to receiving 48 hours of straight pay for the work week? I may be wrong, but this does not seem right.

-Thanks so much-

If she works, she gets paid for the hours.

If she WORKS more than 40 hours during the company work week, she gets paid overtime. (Example, employee works 32 hours and takes 24 hours vacation, for a total of 56 hours, but there is no overtime, since the employee did not work over 40 hours).

If she uses PDO during the same work week, it does not affect anything as far as straight and overtime pay go. She gets no more overtime, she gets no less.

Just to clarify the law requires a non-exempt worker to paid for any hours physically worked. The law does not require employers to offer vacation (or PDO). This is at the sole discretion of the employer. As ScottB correctly explains, PDO could affect the final determination of if overtime is due or not.

Back to your original question. I strongly believe that there may be some miscommunication between your girlfriend and her boss. Many companies would not "dock" 8 hours simply because PDO was used. My best guess is that when explaining how her check would look, it was explained that it would read 40 regular hours and 8 PDO hours (which equal 48 total hours = all paid at straight time). Maybe the second part of the explanation was not clear. I suggest she reconfirm with her boss or HR.

Maybe the second part of the explanation was not clear. I suggest she reconfirm with her boss or HR.

Or, gee, robb71, maybe she could ask Payroll. ;) :p