Hurricane Preparedness

Hurricane season is upon us and, as we’ve already seen with Harvey, it is expected to be very active. To help ensure your business is prepared for severe weather we wanted to provide you with some tips to lessen disruption to you and your employees.

A top priority is ensuring your employees are paid on time. Here are two solutions you can implement that will help protect your employees’ pay. 

• Direct Deposit: By having employees setup direct deposit now, they can get the pre-note period started which typically takes approximately 10 days, and then enjoy their pay check automatically deposited each pay period. 
• Aline Pay Card: The Aline card, available through ADP, allows your employees to simply hold a pay card where their money is automatically deposited each payroll and can see and manage the balance right on their mobile application.  Each payroll, new money is sent to that card and there is no banking transaction or waiting at the bank to cash a check.    

Using one of these method for paying your employees guarantees that severe weather, including hurricanes or floods, will not interrupt your employee’s money from reaching them.  Contact your payroll representative to get this started today. 

Should a hurricane impact your business and you need to need to reschedule your payroll, please call your dedicated Payroll Service Representative (PSR).  Your PSR can review your scheduled changes, evaluate options for you, determine members of your team who do not have direct deposit, and facilitate the set-up of direct deposit, Aline and iReports.

In addition to the payroll options above, there are additional resources available to you and your business.  See below for more information.

Keeping your Employees Safe – Employer Responsibilities and Employee’s Rights

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has stated that each employer is responsible for the safety and health of its employees and for providing a safe and healthy workplace.  Employers are required to protect employees from the anticipated hazards associated with hurricane response and recovery operations.

Resources are available from OSHA that will help you prepare and respond to hurricanes.   

• The Preparedness page provides information on making an evacuation plan, emergency supply kits, and hurricane watches and warnings.  
  
• The Response/Recovery page provides useful details on the hazards to avoid when there is a hurricane, including areas to avoid when using a vehicle, and safety and health hazards such as downed electrical lines, mold and wild animals. The eMatrix found on this page is designed to help employers make decisions to protect employees and offers recommendations for personal protective equipment, safe work practices, and precautions for each activity.
  

Keeping Your Employees Paid

ADP offers no-cost tools to mitigate the risk of delivery delays and reports that you need to run your business.  In addition to the direct deposit and Align options you also have access to Payroll Reports. Presented as PDFs, iReports allow you to quickly and easily analyze your data without printing.

Frequently Asked Wage and Hour Questions

The following questions are commonly asked about the impact of worksite closures.  Please let us know if you need more information on any of these topics.  

Q. How will a worksite closure impact my non-exempt employees?

A. With respect to non-exempt employees, there is generally no obligation under federal or state law to pay for time not worked. However, under some state laws, employers may have an obligation to compensate non-exempt employees under call-in/reporting pay laws, especially if employees were not advised that they should not report to work and were denied work upon arrival at the workplace.  However, if during a worksite closure a non-exempt employee performs any work, the employee must be paid for all hours worked.    

Q. What is the impact of the worksite closure on my exempt salaried employees?

A.  As to salaried exempt employees who federal and/or state law mandates must be paid on a “salary basis,” you may not make salary deductions for absences that result from your partial-week closing of operations, including closings due to natural disasters.

Accordingly, absent a permissible deduction, exempt employees must be paid their full salary if they perform any work in a workweek even if they miss work time due to your closure of operations.  Employees need not be paid if no work is performed due to closures of the worksite for a full workweek. If the worksite is closed for a full workweek, you should advise exempt employees that they are prohibited from working if you do not want to pay their full salary wages for the workweek.      

In addition, if you remain open and an exempt employee does not report to work for the full workday (and is not otherwise sick or disabled) then full day deductions from salary are permitted. That said, as a practical matter, please consider the employee relations impact of such a decision. If an exempt employee leaves work early to avoid potential hazards then you are required to pay for the full day and no deductions are permissible.

Q. How to use paid time off (PTO) and vacation during a worksite closure?

A. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require you to provide paid time off (PTO) or vacation time and therefore does not regulate their use.  However, state laws may bar you from forcing employees to use PTO or accrued vacation time during a worksite closure. However, if your policy specifically provides for forced use of PTO or vacation time then it will likely be permitted if the policy is followed appropriately. Again, the employee relations impact of such a decision should be considered.

We recommend that you examine your vacation policy language to ensure you are not opening yourselves up to a claim that an express or implied contract limits your right to require an employee to use accrued PTO or vacation.  

      Q. What additional resources are available to help my Employees through these recent events?  

A. The Employee Assistance Program is available to our client employees and their dependents.  The program, which is provided at no additional charge, offers face-to-face counseling with local, licensed, certified counselors and referrals to various resources for marriage/relationship, family, stress, grief and depression concerns.  You can reach the EAP by calling 866-574-7256.