Except employee in PA - Work Hour Changes

[patterb]

Hello,
I work in PA for a company who's HR department is in NJ. When I was hired 6 years ago, I was hired as an except employee and verbally told my working hours were 9-5. These hours have been changed many times in the six years I have worked here, my question is 'Can a company just say one day, your new hours are 8-5, when you were hired for 9-5?' They claim it is a location issue. The excempt employees in the NJ office work 9-5, but the exempt employees in the PA office work 8-5. I guess I feel that employees should be classified two ways exempt and non-exempt, and that all exempt employees...no matter the location should receive the same amount of hours of work and lunch. Help - Thanks from 'do I have to change my daycare again'

[Pattymd]

Yes, the company can change the work hours as business needs dictate (or, even, just because they want to). If your working conditions could never be changed from day one, the company could not improve upon them to your benefit either.

And it is not illegal for exempt employees to work whatever number of hours are required; as a matter of fact, that is a key element of being exempt. Just because exempt employees in another state work from 9-5 doesn't mean that employees in your location cannot be required to be at work from 8-5 or whatever schedule management in that location requires.

[patterb]

Thanks for the quick reply. So, if you are an exempt employee and you run out of vacation/sick/personal time and you get the flu and miss two days of work. Can your employer dock your salary for those missed two days?

[Pattymd]

Generally speaking, yes, if you are off for a full day. However, if you work a partial day, you must be paid for the full day, even if you are out of paid-time-off, unless the absence is due to intermittent FMLA issues.