I work for a Massachusetts corporation and we have an "exempt" (salaried employee) that leaves early (sometime 2,3,4 hours early) with a million excuses, doctors apts., sick kid, you name it. When can we start docking her pay or using her personal / vacation time for this. Are we allowed to dock her or are we obligated to pay her the 8 hours because she worked more than 1/2 of her day in some instances?

Also, are employees entitled to two 15 minute breaks AND a lunch break on 8 hour shift? I thought it was only 1/2 hour meal break for each 6 hours worked.
Thanks.

If she is genuinely exempt, then you can NEVER dock her pay for partial day absences unless the time is attributable to FMLA. You can, however, be applying vacation or personal time to those absences at any time you like. You can also tell her that she either shapes up or she can have all the time she likes to take care of her personal business since she will not have a job.

Federal law does not require any breaks at all. MA law only requires a 30 minute, unpaid meal break for employees who work six hours or more. The ONLY employees in the entire US who are entitled, under the law, to two 15 minute rest breaks are SOME hotel workers in Illinois. There is NOWHERE else in the US where the law requires two 15 minute breaks for adult employees.

(A very few states do require TEN minute breaks for every four hours worked, but Massachusetts is not one of them.)