I work for a country club in PA and currently we are over budget in labor. We are trying to cut down on people clocking in early. We are in the process of trying to black out our computer system. However, my question is this... Can we adjust an employee's time if they clock in any earlier than 5 mins before their scheduled shift?
Example:
An employee is scheduled for a 4:00 shift. They clock in at 3:50. We go back and adjust their time to 3:55. Is this legal?
And is this policy in writing anywhere?
Currently, we are reprimanding our employees and writing them up for it, but we have over 100 employee's and it is getting out of control.
Thanks for any advice.

Can you set up the clock so that they can't clock in until 5 minutes before their shift?

The problem you could have is that, if the time clock shows XX time worked, and the employee filed a claim for unpaid wages, the burden of proof would be on the employer to show that they were, in fact, NOT working from 3:50 to 4:00, for example.

OTOH, if you're discipling them for not adhering to the company policy, but there is no real change in their working conditions or status, why would they change their behavior? I would bet that a firing or two would get the rest of the employees' attention.

See the problem we are having is that
a.) we are not in the position to fire anyone.
b.) last time we blacked out the system people would forget to clock in and we would have to adjust the time anyway. Even if people were late they could still have their time adjusted to the time they were due in.

Basically,
It would be easier for our payroll dept to just go and adjust their time. We were thinking about putting out a memo attached to everyone's paycheck and having them sign off on it. That should cover us right? If it states something along the lines of " we do not need you until you are scheduled so you are not allowed to clock in until 5 mins before your scheduled time. The extra time will be adjusted and you will not be paid."

Why are the labor laws such a gray area!@?:mad::confused:

Why are the labor laws such a gray area!@?:mad::confused:

Labor laws are not grey on this particular subject. Labor laws are very clear that Non-Exempt employees must be paid based on actual hours worked. Employees can be fired for working unscheduled hours but they cannot be unpaid for those hours. Employees can and should be disciplined for falsifying time accounting. Supervisors can and should be disciplined for failing to do their jobs.

That is very clear. Employers might not like this rule. Employers might try to "grey" things up with shifts and schedules and memos and clock punching rules, but none of these things change the actual law.

IMHO you need to forget the clock and enforce the rules. Make the rules clearly known, document the infractions and suspend the first one's who violate it, the rest should fall into line quickly.

Thank you for all of your help!:)