Time to put on ypur thinking caps

My wife came tro me with this problem from work, and I'm not sure of the answer.

She is a payroll clerk with the state of New York. As part of their contract they have five unpaid furlough days this year and she has to calculate peoples pay to take a little time each week instead of a whole day every so often. For the full and part time people it's easy. They accumulate time off so she set up a program that takes a percent of the hours you worked each week, and when you've accumulated a full day off it shows up on your time card and you have to take the day of that your not being paid for.

They also have per diem workers, mostly specialists the hospital doesn't need every day that only work when they are called in. They are also supposed to have a the same percent taken from their pay to make up their furlough day and then told to take a day off like the part-timers. Once she thought about it it didn't make sense to take money from the per diems as they don't get paid or unpaid time off, only time on. She would like to see an example either proving here right or wrong that she can show people when the questions come up as several doctors have already come to her and she is having trouble explaining it.

Thanks

Gee, that is a pain...can the per diem people just be called in less often and that process be carefully documented?

It is a bit confusing on the surface, but if I get this right, here's the way I understand her point of view:

The goal of calculating and holding a portion of full-time and part-time employees' pay for the unpaid furlough day is to maintain their regular paycheck amount (generally). If the portion was not held, then the paycheck period that included the used furlough day would be short a full day's pay. That would suck and be a burden on the employee for that paycheck period.

Since per diem employees are only payed for the exact time they work and that time is irregular anyway, it doesn't make sense to hold a portion of their pay in an attempt to maintain some completely artificial and arbitrary sense of "regularity" to their paychecks (which, again, by the nature of being per diem is necessarily irregular anyway).

Is that right?

In this case, I think that per diem workers should be treated differently. Almost by definition, they are coming to work under special circumstances, because you have a special need for them and they offer a unique skill that meets that need. They shouldn't be punished for that.

Now, that doesn't mean that you cannot adjust the pay scale for per diems downward and then give them a raise after they have worked "X" number hours per year.

As always, you would have to figure out what "X" equals...

When they ask her, she replies, "Are you threatening me?"

That's all I have...

This is for unscheduled, unpaid time issues?

Sure seems as if it would have to be part of the contracts. Like you point out in the original paragraph, the regular and part time employees have a contract that says that money will be held out for unpaid days. (how they get that money back would be an interesting question to ask... but that's a different thread).

To even hire a non-regular employee, there should already be a good contract that outlines this situation. Or not, actually, and if not, then she should not be taking money out.

I think if I were the one doing such work, I would try my best to avoid this process, since, as you point out, the work is pretty much paid as worked and demand is as needed- so if you don't show, they call a different person. To me, it would make the most sense that they would not take unpaid days off. Similarly, I would also want it that my pay reflects no vacation, for basically the same reason.

Anyway, interesting condundrum.

Does the state assign a different status to per diem workers than it does for part and full-time workers. Seems like that should be addressed in the contract.

If there is no distinction, the issue needs to be addressed by the state before your wife can design a work-around. That may be an even bigger problem.

" I'm sorry, sir/madam. That decision is above my pay grade. I've been told to withhold 1/52nd of your wages. The supervisors office is just down the hall."

I would seem that a per diem is something like a contract worker. You get paid for work done.
Of course,w e are talking about NYS and it's public employees unions. She should ask for a ruling from higher up.

The State of New York set this system up in order to save money. It follows that they expected to save money from the per-diem guys as well as from the regular guys. Whether they were smart enough to put the necessary regulations/contract provisions/whatever in place is another story. Either way, it's certainly not something a payroll clerk should have to solve on her own.

Nobody's taking any upaid work days: They're taking involuntary unpaid days off, but they are still paid the same as normal for every hour worked.

Per diem workers always take all their days off unpaid.

The only correct analogue for a furlough day for a per diem worker is to not call them in. If they are called in, they should be paid as per normal.

ransom wrote: Nobody's taking any upaid work days: They're taking involuntary unpaid days off, but they are still paid the same as normal for every hour worked. Per diem workers always take all their days off unpaid. The only correct analogue for a furlough day for a per diem worker is to not call them in. If they are called in, they should be paid as per normal.

^^ this.

She could calculate how many days a per diem worker is called in and try to have them called in less, but you mentioned doctors - so I'm not so sure how well it would go over to not call a surgeon in for, say and emergency appendectomy.

Thanks, she wanted to make sure she was on the right track before going to ask the geniuses up in Albany. They have pretty muchtried to sum up all their rules in a two page e-mail and left everyone on their own to figure out all the details.

I work on an "on call" basis at the casinos down here in AC.

It's simple, if I work, I get paid. If I don't work, I don't get paid. I do not accumulate Paid Time off and I do not get sick days, If you do not want me working 5 odd days a month... then don't call me in.

How can you tell someone they have to take a day off when you tell them when they're working? In short, giving them a furlough day is silly.

mad_machine wrote: I work on an "on call" basis at the casinos down here in AC. It's simple, if I work, I get paid. If I don't work, I don't get paid. I do not accumulate Paid Time off and I do not get sick days, If you do not want me working 5 odd days a month... then don't call me in.

That was her point. They are going to take about 3% of everyone's pay. They would work fewer days so it wouldn't be a pay cut for full and part timers, but it would be for te per diem workers.