Using PTO For not working 40hr week

[ear82]

hi, i work in a clothing retail store in california. i was told that i am a salaried employee based off of a 40-43 hour work week. whenever i did not work a complete 40 hour work week the company deducted time out of my Paid Time Off to make it a 40 work week. e.g. if i worked only 38hours in one work week they deducted 2 hours from my paid time off to put me at 40 hours for the week. is this ok?

[LConnell]

Yes, it is legal as long as the only use of the PTO is for sick time. Otherwise, they cannot force you to use PTO to make up the difference.

[cbg]

Lillian - you appear to be more knowledgeable about CA law than I am; this is a question, not an argument.

I agree absolutely with your response as regards partial day deductions of PTO time. I was, however, under the impression that CA law does permit full-day deductions from PTO for any reason. Is that correct, or am I misinformed?

[LConnell]

California takes the view that PTO as wages. This is demonstrated with the required payment of PTO to employees at the time of termination. The only exception to the rule regardiing payment of PTO is if the PTO is designated for use as sick pay only.

In accordance with that belief, it does not permit forced deductions from PTO, without the express written approval of the employee.

[cbg]

Thank you for the clarification. My state also identifies vacation time as wages, but does permit forced docking of PTO or vacation time in both full and partial day increments; thus my confusion.

[LConnell]

Thanks for asking. I understand the confusion. California tends to look at regs a little differently than most states. In support of my statement, a CA wage and hour opinion on the topic may be found at:
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/opinions/2002-03-12.pdf

In addition, check out page 236 of the manual found at the following link
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/DLSEManua...enfcmanual.pdf

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[cbg]

Will do. The friend I have been bouncing my CA law questions off of has a tendency to be rather long-winded; by the time I get to the end of the answer I've forgotten the beginning!

Just to make things more complicated, I had employees in CA about five years ago and several laws have changed since then; I'm often not sure if I'm remembering the old law or the new.

Thanks again.