NUMBER: 8-4-1 APPROVED DATE: 09-07-1999

BASED ON POLICY NUMBER AND TITLE: SBTCE POLICY 8-2-104 OVERTIME COMPENSATION

SBTCE Policy 8-2-104 Overtime Compensation https://www.sctechsystem.edu/faculty-and-staff/policies-and-procedures/policies/8-2-104.pdf

PURPOSE: To define the number of working hours per week for all full-time equivalent (FTE) employees and the methods for related reporting.

 Staffing Office Hours

Trident Technical College (TTC) generally staffs all offices Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.  TTC has developed and adopted general guidelines for overtime compensation in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the rules and regulations of the South Carolina Department of Administration.  The FLSA establishes minimum wage rates, maximum work hours, overtime pay requirements, equal pay standards, and child labor restrictions for employees subject to its provisions.

Exempt/Non-Exempt Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act

Exempt

Employees are considered “Exempt” if their job duties, and their salary, meet certain thresholds within the FLSA. The exempt status of an employee in a bona fide executive, administrative, professional, computer employee, or faculty position shall be determined by Human Resources and the appropriate Cabinet member.  Exempt employees are not subject to the FLSA minimum wage, overtime, or record keeping requirements. Exempt employees must report all absences via the on-line leave system.  Supervisors must approve leave no later than the ninth (9^th) day of the following month.  Exempt employees may receive compensatory time for hours worked in excess of forty (40) hours in the workweek at a rate not greater than one (1) hour of compensatory time for each hour worked in excess of forty (40) hours in the workweek.   

Non-Exempt

All other employees shall be non-exempt (those employees in jobs that are generally technical, clerical, service, maintenance, or public safety in nature). Non-exempt employees are covered by, or subject to, the minimum wage, overtime, and record keeping requirements of FLSA.  Non-exempt employees must report all hours of work and all hours of absence for each calendar month on the Monthly Time Sheet (TTC Form T3-43). By law, time sheets must show, to the nearest tenth (10^th ) of an hour, all time worked each day. Supervisors should submit these forms to the Human Resources Office no later than the fifth (5th) day of the following month.  The following regulations apply to all non-exempt employees:  

 1.   WORKWEEK

     The FLSA workweek is a regular recurring period of seven (7) consecutive twenty-four (24) hour periods or one hundred sixty-eight (168) consecutive hours. Overtime is defined as all hours worked in excess of forty (40) hours during the  established FLSA workweek. The use of overtime should be an exception to an employee’s regular work  schedule and should only be required on an occasional basis. Any employee may be required to work up to forty (40) hours per workweek  without additional  compensation.  TTC Procedure 13-0-8, "Full-time Faculty Workload/Overload" governs working hours for FTE teaching faculty.  In compliance with the FLSA, the standard workweek for TTC  is forty (40) hours per week, excluding lunch periods. The workweek shall begin at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday and shall end at 12:00 midnight on Saturday.

Exception: Any employee engaging in law enforcement activity, may have an FLSA work period of up to twenty-eight (28) consecutive 24-hour periods, i.e. 672 consecutive hours.

2.   COMPENSATION 

      For non-exempt employees, FLSA requires that either compensatory time off or monetary compensation (pay) at the rate of one and one-half times the regular hourly rate be awarded for time worked beyond any tenth of an hour over forty (40) hours per week. However, in the event that an employee works additional hours during a week in  which a holiday or other leave with pay occurs, payment shall be at straight time until the employee has actually worked over forty and one-tenth hours (40-1/10).

Note: Special overtime provisions may apply to non-exempt employees engaged in law enforcement activity, who must receive overtime compensation in the form of overtime payment or compensatory time for all hours worked over 171 in a twenty-eight (28) day work period, or a proportional amount of hours in a shorter work period.

  Non-exempt employees will be compensated by the following methods:

      A.  Compensatory Time - Compensatory time will be granted in lieu of payment at the rate of one and one-half (1-1/2) times the hours worked over forty (40) hours.

           1.  Employees will be allowed to accrue only up to two hundred forty (240) hours of compensatory time before any monetary payment is made. For overtime worked for  an employee with an accumulation of two hundred (240) hours of compensatory time, the overtime must be paid in the employee's next regular paycheck.

Note: A non-exempt employee engaged in law enforcement activity may not accumulate more than 480 hours of compensatory time. Any employee who has accumulated 480 hours of compensatory time shall be paid overtime for additional hours of work.

           2.  Management may require employees to take compensatory time at a time that does not unduly disrupt the operation of the college.

      B.  Monetary Compensation - Monetary compensation may be granted to the employee. Such monetary compensation will be given only after approval by the appropriate Cabinet member or designee. When monetary compensation is granted, it  will be paid at the rate of one and one-half (1-1/2) times the employee's regular rate for all hours worked over forty (40) hours.  Note that overtime costs will be charged to the departmental budget and the extra funds will not necessarily  be provided.
     
     C.  Holiday Compensation - Holiday compensatory time will be granted in accordance with Section 19-708.04 of the State Human Resources and State Board for Technical  and Comprehensive Education (SBTCE) Procedure 8-3-108.1, Holidays". Time worked on a legal holiday shall be used in computing total hours worked.  Holiday compensatory time will be paid to college employees who are not allowed to take the time earned for working on a holiday within one (1) year from the date of the holiday.  All non-exempt employees will be paid for unused holiday compensatory time at the straight hourly pay rate of the employee upon separation of employment or upon an employee starting in an exempt position.

3.  HOURS WORKED

     Hours worked includes all time that an employee is required to be on duty or at the prescribed work place and all time during which an employee is permitted to work.  This includes any bona fide work which the employee performs on or away from  the premises if the supervisor knows or has reason to believe that the work is being performed. Even if not approved, unauthorized work shall be counted as hours worked if the supervisor could have stopped the work but did not, or if he or she knows or has reason to  know of the work performed.  Specific items related to hours worked are as follows:

     A.  Time spent as a volunteer is not included in hours worked.  Non-exempt employees may not volunteer to perform work that is in the same capacity as or an extension of the work duties they perform for the State.

     B.  On-call time is not regarded as work time unless an employee is required to remain at the employer's premise or prescribed work place or is restricted that the employee cannot use the time effectively for his or her own purposes.  If an employee who is on-call is not confined to home or any particular place, but is required only to leave a work where he or she may be reached, the hours spend on call are not regarded as working time.

     C.  A bona fide meal period (a minimum of thirty (30) minutes uninterrupted) that occurs during the scheduled workday is not hours worked if the employee is completely relieved from duty for the purpose of eating a regular meal.  Supervisors shall ensure that employees are relieved from duty during the meal period.

     D.  Rest periods or coffee breaks of short duration are not required, but if given must be counted as hours worked.  Short duration is defined as no more than fifteen (15) minutes during the morning and no more than fifteen (15) minutes during the afternoon each work day.  Breaks shall not be used to allow an employee to come in late, to leave early, or to extend the lunch period.

     E.  Travel time for non-exempt employees may be hours worked under some conditions.  Ordinary home to work travel or vice versa is not considered time worked regardless of the day of the week. All time spent traveling on one-day assignments is considered work hours regardless of the day of the week and the time of the day it occurs.  When away from home (overnight), travel time is considered time worked only when it cuts across the employee's normal working hours.  This is applicable on both regular workdays and corresponding hours of non-work days.
     
     F.  When a non-exempt employee, by reason of official responsibilities, is required to attend lectures, meetings, training programs, etc., such time will be considered work time.

     G.  The hours a non-exempt employee works (1) in a different capacity, (2) occasional and sporadic, (3) as extensions of normal work duties and (4) for other state agencies are eligible for overtime compensation based on the total number of hours worked per week for the State of South Carolina.

     H.  To eliminate the need for overtime payment, under warranted circumstances, a non-exempt employee may not be allowed to work in excess of the normal workday and may be given time off during the same workweek at the rate of an hour for hour to avoid working over forty (40) hours in a workweek.

     I.  Employees on any leave status will not be considered as working in the computation of total hours worked.

4.  APPROVAL AND BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS

     Prior to the performance of the work, the immediate supervisor must request that the employee perform any overtime work. The employee will then receive compensatory time-off.  Overtime shall not be authorized unless there is any absolute need to meet a deadline that could not be met during the normal workweek, to overcome productive time lost due to mechanical failure, or to meet the demands of a crisis situation.  The use of overtime should be an exception to an employee's regular work schedule and should only be required on an occasional basis.  Any overtime worked is subject to the following conditions:

     A.  The appropriate Cabinet member or designee must approve all overtime worked by any non-exempt employees if the employee is to receive monetary compensation instead of compensatory time off.  TTC will make monetary payments for overtime if the appropriate Cabinet member indicates his/her prior approval by initialing and dating the overtime hours on the monthly time sheet. Otherwise, supervisors must arrange and report compensatory time off.
     
     B.  Overtime costs must be managed within the department's existing budget.

5.  FLSA STATUS CHANGE

      If a non-exempt employee accepts a position that is considered exempt either within TTC or with a separate state agency, compensatory time must be paid prior to the employee starting in the exempt position.

      If a non-exempt employee separates from employment or moves to another state agency, any accrued compensatory time must be paid.  Compensatory time must be paid at a rate of compensation not less than either the average regular rate received by the employee during the last three (3) years of employment or the final regular rate received by the employee, whichever is higher.

6.  TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES

     Non-exempt temporary employees shall be compensated for all hours worked.

7.  RECORDKEEPING

     Weekly time records shall be kept in accordance with FLSA.

     Employees and supervisors must record daily hours of work and daily hours of absence for each calendar month (which includes overtime worked and compensatory time taken) on the Monthly Timesheet (TTC Form T3-43).

     TTC must maintain the following information for non-exempt employees:

     a.  Name;
     b.  Home address;
     c.  Date of birth if under 19 years of age;
     d.  Gender and occupation;
     e.  Employee workweek, including time of day and day of week on which the employee's workweek begins;
     f.  Regular hourly rate of pay for any week when overtime is worked and overtime pay is due;
     g.  Hours worked each workday and total hours worked each week;
     h.  Total daily or weekly straight-time wages for all hours worked;
     i.  Total overtime compensation for the workweek;
     j.  Total additions or deductions from wages each pay period;
     k.  Total wages paid each pay period;
     l.  Date of payment and pay period covered; (29 CFR 516.2)
    m. The number of hours of compensatory time earned each workweek, or other applicable work period, by each employee at the rate of one and one-half (1-1/2) hours for each overtime hour worked;
     n.  The number of hours of such compensatory time used each workweek or other applicable work period by each employee; and 
     o.  The number of hours of compensatory time compensated in cash, the total amount paid, and the date of such payment. (29 CFR 553-50)

ADDENDUM TO

TTC Procedure 8-4-1, Personnel Work Schedules and Overtime Compensation

Updated: 07-14-2008

Updated: 08-26-2015

Updated: 11-18-2016

Updated: 04-09-2018