This one is over my head: my hubby works in PA for a company who has a location in PA but is headquartered on Ohio. He drives a truck and also works in the warehouse and office, depending on the need that day. He does not get OT unless he works over 40 hrs/week. Now his boss is telling him that headquarters has decided he has to stick to a strick 40 hr week - no OT. However he has already had a long day already where he worked 4 hrs OT this week. The heart of my question is this: can a company work a person for days longer than 8 hours and then at whatever point during the week that they reach 40 hrs, tell them to go home and come back the next week? My head is hurting pondering this. :confused: THANKS!!

Overtime in PA (and in 45 other states) is based on 40 hours in a week, not on over 8 hours in a day. There is nothing in the law entitling an employee to working overtime and nothing in the law that prohibits an employer from sending an employee home so that they do not work over 40 hours in a week.

For the most part, an employer may legally require as many hours in a day from the employee as business needs require. However, there are some exceptions and a truck driver is often one of them.

There are other responders here who know the regs for truck drivers better than I, so I will leave the details of your question to them.

Does he drive interstate and, if so, what is the weight of the truck? Or does he only drive within Pennsylvania?

Yes he drives interstate - NJ, PA, MD, DE and he has a GVW 33,000 lbs. He has a CDL. But he does not necessarily drive every day - maybe one or two days a week he'll stay in and work in the warehouse and office if there are no deliveries that day. Otherwise he will be driving his truck and making deliveries.

I'm going to have to do some research on DOT regulations under this scenario. It may not be until the weekend, if no one else has anything to add.

And what is the gross weight (empty) of the truck he drives to other states? This might make a difference.

Pennsylvania is over 40 hours worked in the workweek. However, DOT regulations have an exception to overtime (where it does not need to be paid at all under certain circumstances), but I'm not sure whether that would apply when some of the week in spent in interstate driving and some is spent at the home facility and/or driving within the state.

He says he has an 8 ton truck.

He has some pretty stict rules and regs as a driver as to how many hrs/day he can drive and such and he is very conscientious about that. We were just curious about this OT thing as it is a new (and unexpected) development at his company. We really appreciate your help on this! Thank you.

If no one else has information about this situation, it'll be the weekend before I can spend the time on this. I'll post when I know more.

This one is over my head: my hubby works in PA for a company who has a location in PA but is headquartered on Ohio. He drives a truck and also works in the warehouse and office, depending on the need that day. He does not get OT unless he works over 40 hrs/week. Now his boss is telling him that headquarters has decided he has to stick to a strick 40 hr week - no OT. However he has already had a long day already where he worked 4 hrs OT this week. The heart of my question is this: can a company work a person for days longer than 8 hours and then at whatever point during the week that they reach 40 hrs, tell them to go home and come back the next week? My head is hurting pondering this. :confused: THANKS!!

Federal law requires that employees be paid overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a work week. Employers have the right to limit hours worked to 40 or less in a work week. However, if for whatever reason the employee works over 40 hours in a work week, the employer must pay the overtime premium for the number of hours the employee worked over 40 in a given work week. An employer may discipline an employee that fails to follow instructions and works over 40 hours in a work week after being told not to do so. The employer may not however denied overtime pay earned.

In addition, unless the is a policy or union contract that says otherwise, an may work and employee 10 hours per day for 4 days and then tell him or her to take off after 40 hours has been reached. Some states like California require overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a work week and 8 in a work day. I'm not sure about PA, however, you can inquire by calling the PA Department of Labor.

Keep_US_Working

PA does not calculate overtime on a daily, but on a weekly basis, as I have already stated.

There is a complication that certain truck drivers that cross interstate lines are exempt from overtime under federal law (Motor Carrier Exemption).

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs19.htm