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SOUTH BEND & SAINT JOSEPH COUNTY HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION 235-9798 MEMORANDUM Tuesday, September 07, 2004. TO: HPC Members FROM: Karen R. Hammond -Nash RE: New interpretations of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act As you all have no doubt heard in the news, the U.S. Department of Labor has published new guidelines to assist employers in applying properly the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act with regard to overtime compensation. County employees do not receive overtime pay; those eligible receive compensation time, instead. Compensation time is awarded at the rate of one and one half hours of regular time off, for each overtime hour worked. Employees who have a measure of control over their work hours, and over the allocation of their own time, who have significant management responsibility, and are compensated at a rate reflecting that responsibility, are generally exempt from overtime pay or compensation time requirements. On the other hand, employees who are not in charge of the allocation of their hours,+ and who are required to work overtime hours, as well as a regular workweek, are generally required, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, to receive compensation for those overtime hours. Under these interpretations, the job title of an employee is less significant in determining eligibility, then (1) rate of pay, and (2) degree of employee's control over her own hours. The assistant director here (1) is expected to work a regular work week, regardless of any meetings outside of regular county office hours, (2) is paid less than $25,000 per year (while the director is paid about 50% more than that), and (3) has no authority nor control over when meetings requiring overtime work are set, nor any control over how long they last. For these reasons, and under the current interpretation of the Act, she should receive compensation time allowance. for the overtime meeting hours that she is required to work. . In other words, for each one hour meeting which she attends and assists, she should receive one and a half hours off her regular work week hours, and for each three-hour meeting which she attends, 3 x 1.5, or four and one half hours off, to be taken that week or the following week, or as otherwise agreed between herself and the director. Storing and stacking compensation hours into significant blocks of time off, or time that will leave the office unattended for significant or recurring periods should be discussed and approved by the HPC, or by its Executive Committee. . As long as we have a competent and responsible person in the position of assistant director, granting her the compensation time required under the U.S. Department of Labor's current interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act should not have any negative impact on the operations of this office. Indeed, if she were to chose to use her compensation time to advance her studies at a college of architecture or design, that would even benefit the office in both the long and the short term.