I work for a non-for-profit organization with more than 200 full-time employees. I'm classified as exempt. I consistently work more than 40 hours per week. Exempt employees in my department have to use personal or vacation time to compensate for time missed when not working a full forty hour week.

Once during an ice storm, when travel was not possible to work, exempt employees where required to use sick time to compensate for two days of work missed. Those same employees still worked a 24 hour work week that week. Is this legal?

We are also required to use personal/vacation time when working less than 8hrs in a day; even though, we have worked more than 40hrs during the work week. When hired I was told, because I'm exempt, that if we worked at least 6 hrs in a day that day would be considered a full work day. I have been informed by my supervisor that we are not supposed to receive flex time. Furthermore, that the use of flex time is a non-required form of OT compensation by my employer. However, sometime we receive flex time. Is this legal?

We are also strongly encourage to volunteer w/o compensation (i.e., flex time or financial) for special money making events for our organization. We are told that if we volunteer it will help with merit raises (i.e., that we are not required to get each year); even though, our organization has a strict policy against employees working and volunteering at the same time. Is this legal?

Thank you in advance for your advice,

Palerider

There are a few misconceptions here.

Exempt employees may be required to "use" any paid time off that may be available to substitute for regular salary when a full day is missed. I'm thinking that maybe the employees who were required to use sick time were out of vacation.

As long as the exempt employee gets his full salary for any week in which he does any work (with limited exceptions), the federal DOL doesn't really care which "bucket" the pay comes from. ONLY if you are in California (and you didn't provide your state as requested), is this situation less than clear.
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_541/29CFR541.602.htm

What a "full work day" is, is defined by the employer. Again, with the limited exceptions that MAY exist in California, it is legal for the employer to require exempt employees use paid time off for partial day absences.

If the employer chooses to allow "flex time" or "comp time" or anything else for exempt employees, that's over and above what the law requires, thereby making such arrangements legal.

I'm going to leave the "forced volunteering" to someone more versed in that area. However, it sounds like practice and policy are in conflict here. Has this situation been discussed with HR?

Thanks for the reply. I work in Texas.

We are also strongly encourage to volunteer w/o compensation (i.e., flex time or financial) for special money making events for our organization. We are told that if we volunteer it will help with merit raises (i.e., that we are not required to get each year); even though, our organization has a strict policy against employees working and volunteering at the same time. Is this legal?


Maybe legal. The "law" does not address everything. The following federal FLSA regualtion is the closest I am familar with to your issue, and it is not very close (IMO). Employers have a great deal of legal latitude in deciding raises and promotions.

§ 785.44 Civic and charitable work.
Time spent in work for public or charitable purposes at the employer’s request, or under his direction or control, or while the employee is required to be on the premises, is working time. However, time spent voluntarily in such activities outside of the employee’s normal working hours is not hours worked.