VA (Time sheets changes without notification)

[llou420]

Our company (in Virginia) asks that we fill out a time card regardless of whether we are hourly or exempt. Last week I worked several hours from home with my managers approval in the evenings. When I filled out my time card, I just put in 8 hours for each day and my manager signed it. Later when I got my payck I noticed I had been "docked" 16 hours vacation. When I went to our accounting manager she said she noticed I was out Mon and Tuesday so changed my timecard to vacation. Is it legal to change someone's time card after they and thier manager has signed it? I was never even notified that it had been altered by the accounting mananger. She gave no excuse for herself saying that is how the company handles payroll. I feel this is a grave injustice since its an alteration to a document after I have signed it. Who is right? Can you do this to an hourly person's timecard too? Another employee told me she does it all the time to houly workers and never tells them. I'd like to know my rights about this.
Thanks,

[Pattymd]

It is not specifically illegal. For example, it would be necessary if the employee clocked in and sat around for an hour before she went to work.

Having said that, however, it is a very poor business practice. The payroll person should have, at the very least, been instructed to contact the manager who signed your time card, to verify that what was reflected was actually what occurred.

So, having said all this, are they going to reinstate your vacation hours?

[llou420]

Yes, my manager told her to put my vacation hours back and that we had made arrangements to use comptime for those hours I was off Mon/Tues. We don't use a time clock. We hand write our timecards and she amends them without notifying the employee. I thought that was illegal.

[cbg]

No, there is no law in Virginia or any other state which makes it illegal to make changes to a timesheet without notifying the employee. There are some circumstances in which it would be necessary for a supervisor to change a timesheet. For example, suppose "Joe" came in at 7:45 and clocked in. Joe then hung up his coat, got a cup of coffee, stopped by a co-workers desk and made arrangements to go to the basketball game together, went back to his desk and spent several minutes checking and responding to his personal e-mail, and only at 8:00 began to work. The supervisor would be justified in changing Joe's timesheet to reflect an 8:00 start time, and since Joe knows perfectly well that he didn't begin working until 8:00, while it would be nice of the employer to notify him it's not required.