Salary Or Not Salary

[LEXUS411979]

My situation is that i started working for this doctors office in September of 2004. When i was hired they stated that i was a part-time employee which means i get paid hourly, after 6 months you are turned to salary which is full-time. I got ill and had to have 2 surguries in February of 2005. So i had not been there for six months so i was leaving for about a month with no pay but i talked to the office manager and she stated that they could advance me my sick time and pay me for that which is 6 days of sick leave. I came back to work in March about a month later. The second pay period after i came back the person that calls in pay he says i changed you to salary. I was like why didnt yall tell me before so i would know because i still was missing alot of work. he said the reason was cause we had already advance me the sick time. But the problem is now that i am salary they are stating to us that if are behind on our hours that they will deduct it from our paycheck. i thought that being salary is whether that you miss or not you get paid this set amount everytime. this is quoted from our office manual. "Pay periods consist of 10-12 working days. the pay days are the 15th and the last day of the month. This office does not offer overtime. any time a salaried employee goes over the 40 hr week time is compensated off . Flex time may be used at the employees request with management ok for early leave. If a salaried employee falls 8 or more hours behind the hours the employee is expected to have worked in a pay period the office reserves the right to reduce an employee pay in the manner consistent with the work time missed. Work days are based on 8 hour days.these policies are set as guidelines and can be changes at any time without prior notice to employees. By acknowledging receipt of this policy manual employee and employer are not executing an employment contract. this is an at will relationship as defined by texas law.
by signing this office manual, salaried employees understand consent and authorize these deductions." Is this right that they can do this? Can someone answer this for me? What can i do?

[cbg]

Your post is hard to follow but here are a few things for you to consider:

1.) Salaried is only a pay method. What matters is whether you are exempt or non-exempt. In general, non-exempt employees are paid on an hourly basis and exempt employees on salary, but there are exceptions in both directions.

2.) It is your job duties, not how long you have been with the company, that determines whether you are exempt or non-exempt.

3.) If you are non-exempt, they have no legal obligation to pay you for any time you are not present.

4.) If you are exempt, your salary can be docked in certain limited situations and it is unclear if the applicable one applies here; however, they do not have to pay you for any week in which you do no work at all.