Exempt Employee May Not Be Docked for Jury Duty

Q. I am an exempt, salaried employee at a company that does not pay for jury duty. I was not excused from service and reported for one day of jury selection. I was not seated and returned to work the next day.

In order to make up for my eight hours away from the office, I worked nine- or 10-hour days during the week and four hours on Saturday. Even with the day spent at the courthouse, my actual hours worked exceeded 40. I was informed that salaried associates do not receive compensatory time off and that in order to receive my normal salary, I would have to use eight hours of sick pay.

Hourly associates are permitted to make up hours throughout the week and on weekends for time missed during their normally scheduled shifts. Can the company require salaried employees to use sick/vacation pay to receive normal compensation just because they worked hours that weren’t regularly scheduled?

--S.C., Huntington Beach

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A No. With certain exceptions not applicable to your situation, an employer must pay an exempt employee his or her full salary for any week in which the employee performs any work for the employer, and may not dock the employee’s salary because of the employee’s absence performing jury service of less than a workweek in duration.

--Michael A. Hood

Employment law attorney

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker

Pay Cut as Punishment Is Legal

Q. A few months ago I requested a vacation, but it was neither approved nor denied by my supervisor. When I returned from vacation, I was told that I had violated company policy by not receiving approval for the vacation. I was put on probation for three months and my pay was cut 25%. During the probation, I was not allowed to accumulate vacation or sick time.

The employee handbook does not say that disciplinary action can include such measures. And when I was hired, I signed a contract that specified my salary.

Does an employer have the right to impose whatever disciplinary action it chooses, including reducing an employee’s salary, in this matter?

--L.C., Torrance

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A. Generally, an employer can institute a pay cut as a disciplinary measure. For example, unless you have some agreement with your employer to the contrary, your employer could have terminated your employment because you took a vacation without approval. Instead of doing so, it took the less drastic step of putting you on probation and cutting your salary.

You indicate that you signed a contract that specified your salary. Without knowing whether the contract also described your employment as “at will,” or whether the contract gave your employer the right to change the terms of your employment, I do not know whether you could assert a breach of contract claim because of your pay cut.

--Josephine Staton Tucker

Employment law attorney

Morrison & Foerster

Tools of the Trade Belong to Employer

Q. I work as a hospital programmer and refer to many technical manuals at my desk while programming. If I were to leave, would those manuals become my property?

--A.P., Los Angeles

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A. No, unless you brought them with you when you started the job or you purchased them with your own funds while you were employed there.

Manuals and other tools provided by an employer to assist employees in performing their jobs remain the property of the employer when the employee leaves.

--James J. McDonald Jr.

Attorney, Fisher & Phillips

Labor law instructor, UC Irvine

When Social Security Reduces Pension

Q. After taking early retirement, I discovered that my monthly pension will be reduced by the amount of Social Security that I receive when I reach age 62. Is this a common practice in pension plans? Is there any way I can fight this pension reduction?

--R.H., Los Angeles

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A. The benefit received under many pension plans is offset by the amount of the participant’s Social Security benefit.

To make sure that your company’s pension plan contains this provision, you should review your summary plan description. If you don’t have a copy of the summary plan description, the plan is required to provide one to you, free of charge.

If the plan does contain this provision, you won’t be able to change it. However, when the reduction becomes effective, you should verify that the calculations are correct. Occasionally, a pension is reduced by an improper amount after a plan has made an incorrect assumption about an employee’s Social Security benefit.

--Kirk F. Maldonado

Employee benefits attorney

Riordan & McKinzie