We had a community event which was held at the bank and all available personal that could help was here. The boss is wanting to give them a day off. I'm concerned with whether or not I have to pay overtime for those that qualify and pay for those who are part time. Also, does this count for any outside community and/or banking activities outside of normal hours. I am located in texas

we give employees one day per year, paid by the bank, to spend volunteering at a venue of their choice. so, if you are part time, you get paid for 4 hours and you do on one of your scheduled work days, if full time, 8 hours, again, on scheduled work day

cbrewster:

Not sure this would fly with the labor department wage & hour rules. Was the even sponsored by your bank? What were the requirements for employees to work the event?

Similar question: We had some hourly employees assist with a booth at a local event and need to know if we can give them comp time for their time spent helping or if it is considered hours worked with overtime earned and needs to be paid as such. We had a booth at a vendor show where we could discuss our home improvement loan products with potential customers. Some of the individuals that volunteered their time were salaried employees that will receive comp time for their attendance but some were hourly employees. This was a voluntary event with no consequences for not helping. Based on the fact that it was voluntary can we not count their time at the event as worked hours and give them some comp time for their efforts?

They can't volunteer to work uncompensated - representing the bank at such an event is work. There are exemptions if the volunteering involves public or charitable purposes, i..e. Habitat for Humanity, etc.

The analysis is simple: The boss said they could "volunteer," but that's probably not what they heard. Pay them.

Thanks for the comments. It was never our intention to not compensate them at all. The thought was to give them comp. time but when I realized that counting it as working hours would give them overtime we knew that they needed counted as clock hours. We added their time at the event to their time clock punches and paid the overtime.