Question... we will be having a mandatory plant-wide shutdown around the holidays. Can we force salaried exempt employees to use vacation time for the time off? If they don't have vacation time on the books, can we force them to take it without pay? I know the regs for docking exempt pay for situations such as being put for personal reasons other than sick/disability, offsetting pay for jury duty etc, safety violations, etc. But I have not found anything relating to a business decision to shut down and having to pay exempt employees. I am afraid it would jeaporize the exempt status if the time was deducted for something out of their control. My first response to this was to not touch the exempt pay and pay as if they worked.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Can we force salaried exempt employees to use vacation time for the time off? Yes. No law in any state limits the right of the employer to determine how and when vacation is taken.

If they don't have vacation time on the books, can we force them to take it without pay? No. Not unless the time you are closed corresponds EXACTLY to the work week. If they perform any work at all during the week, they must be paid for the week (although the pay may be taken from paid leave balances).

The situations for which an exempt employee can have their salary docked are very strictly limited and do not include mandatory company closings which are outside the control of the employee.

Thanks for the info... I noticed that you were in MA, I'm assuming that this would also apply for PA laws as well?

I gave you the Federal laws so they apply all over. But I've had employees in PA so I can tell you that PA has no laws that would modify the Federal.

Thanks again for your help! It is greatly appreciated.