Employees on FMLA charging us for commute time - what can we do? 08-08-2007

I'm an office manager of 14 employees. Of those employees, 2 of them work from home temporarily due to having children. One comes in one day a week and she clocks herself in remotely before leaving her house. She doesn't have permission to do this. The other one drives into the office in the afternoons. She starts her day at 10 a.m. and then during this time, works, tends to the baby (doesn't clock out for lunch or break) and I've discovered for the past 3 months she's been staying clocked in when she commutes to work. We never agreed for her to do this. What should and can we do? Can she be made to pay the time back or docked so many hours a week till she does? My office employees often work through lunch or we eat and work. This is not fair to them, nor is it fair to my boss to be paying out all of this money. I have brought this to his attention, but legally, he's not sure how to handle it. We do not have a written policy, but everyone knows we're not to ride the clock and count our driving time to work.

Rita Risser replies:

These employees need to be put on notice of what the rules are. Rules can be made up to fit situations as they arise and this is the time for that. Put in writing a memo to all employees about clocking in and out. In addition, send a specific notice to each of these two employees documenting what you have found they are doing, and what they must do instead. Include the statement, "Failure to abide by these rules will lead to disciplinary action." And if they do not abide by the rules, give them a written warning, final warning, then fire. It is not advisable, however, to try to get back the money that was already paid. Sorry.

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