Cog in the machine...

These past couple weeks I’ve answered quite a number of questions from both SPEEA and IAM folks that all pretty much boil down to “how can management force me to take a 3-day workweek of whatever days they want, but other employees have the option of staying on a fully-paid five-day workweek if they’d like?”

SHORT ANSWER: The Fair Labor Standards Act and our SPEEA contracts allow management to force all employees to work whatever short workweek schedule the Company, in its infinite wisdom, so desires. But if they direct me or one of my sibling coworkers “exempt” from the FLSA to go on a short week, Spirit would be required to pay us a full week’s wage without us having to use ETO or a part-time schedule or a reduced salary or whatever. They don’t want to pay us for not working, so we’re kept on a five-day workweek unless we choose to give up ETO or 401(k) contributions by “voluntarily” taking the time off.


LONG ANSWER: The Fair Labor Standards Act is the law that, among other things, instituted the 40-hour workweek and guaranteed “time and a half” pay for all time worked over that 40-hour limit. At least, “instituted” and “guaranteed” to those employees fortunate enough to be covered by the Act.

Ya see, there are classifications of employees who are declared to be exempt from the provisions and protections of the FLSA. For this discussion, let’s call these folks, uh... “Exempt” employees. Of which I’m one.

My “Exempt” coworkers and I are ineligible for FLSA protections because we meet one or more of the Act’s exemption criteria.

So, as an Exempt employee, I’m not guaranteed overtime protections by the FLSA law; I work for a salary and that’s all the employer is required to pay, regardless of the number of hours I’m compelled to work. But they’ve got to pay that full salary, even if they compel me to work fewer hours than a “full” workweek. (It’s kinda like overtime premiums in reverse...“nonExempt” employees are protected from working more than 40 hours, Exempt employees from working fewer than 40 hours.)

Please don’t begrudge us this Exempt-related "undertime" benefit; ever since my SPEEA-represented coworkers gave away our PERBUS and NONIND a few years back, this is just about the only benefit we’ve ever received for not being paid time-and-a-half for our O/T.


-- Bill, who hopes this clears things up for now...