Extra Hours of Work and Payment - Essay Example

 Extra Hours of Work and Payment It is important for an individual to acquire the approval of the management in order to be paid for the extra hours spent at the workplace. The approval of the management in advance for extra hours’ payment is essential because of record keeping purposes. The role of the management is to oversee the activities at a particular organization, which includes the employees. Failure by the management to approve the extra hour payment in advance hinders effective record keeping processes. In addition, the approval of the management is essential for legalizing the employee’s contract regarding the extra hours of work at the organization. “An advance approval of the extra hours’ payment by the management ensures that the organization’s agreement with the employee is based on the present salary regulations in the country” (Braswell, 2014). Furthermore, It is important for the management to approve extra hour payment in advance to prevent the occurrence of a legal conflict between the employee and the organization regarding the nature of payment for the extra hours worked. For example, in the case of Merrill Lynch bank, the lack of advanced approval by the management regarding the trainees’ overtime payment led to legal conflicts. The lawsuit could be prevented if the management was aware of the payment terms of the trainees at the organization. Ryan report that, “The approval of the management enhances the credibility of the overtime payment criteria of an organization” The payment for extra hours at the organization depends on various factors. The first factor is the type of employment. In this case, non-exempt salary employees receive overtime payment based on the labor laws in the country. The employees are entitled to payment for hours beyond the legal 40 hours per week. On the other hand, the exempt salary employees receive extra hour payment based on their agreement with the human resource department. “The management should set specific regulations regarding the remuneration of this category of employees in order to avoid conflicts with the law” (Bragg, 2011). Another factor that determines the salary is the type of job given by the company. Trainees at the organization are entitled to payment for the legal working hours. Moreover, they receive allowances depending on the type of assignments provided by the company. Braswell illustrates, “The salaried employees at the company receive extra hour payments based on the guidelines of their employment contract. However, individuals whose annual salary is above $24, 000 do not receive overtime payment at the organization” (Braswell, 2014). The extra hours worked by the employees at the bank depends on the amount of work. In this case, individuals can work between 10 to 12 extra hours in a week depending on the amount of assignments they receive from the management. Most individuals find it difficult to determine the exact duration over which they can work per week because of the dynamics of the job. If the assignment requires long distance traveling, the number of extra hours worked by the trainees and other employees increases. On the other hand, most of the workers whose duties are limited to the company’s premises can control their working durations within five to six hours weekly. “The payment for the extra hours should depend on the type of employment and the overtime duration” (Bragg, 2011). The extra hour process at the organization comprises of many stages that create difficulties in managing overtime payment. Managing the present process is difficult because of the roles repetition during the process of submitting the forms. According to the current process, the forms take long to reach the human resources which limits punctuality in paying the employees. The mismanagement of the employees’ overtime remuneration can hinder effective operations at a particular organization due to various. First, in effective overtime approval process hinders productivity among the employees, which affects the company’s productivity. Secondly, the process can lead to the occurrence of legal conflicts between the organization and the employees due to skipped and delayed overtime payment. Various factors are essential in establishing an effective extra hour approval process for an organization such as workload, number of employees, size of the organization and the type of employees. The payment for extra hours by the bank is meager; given the amount of work the employees are subjected to during the extra hours. Some of the workers are engaged in long hours work based travelling hours, which affects their performance and consequently extra hours’ remuneration. Presently, the bank’s extra hour payment level is poor due to the high number of unemployed individuals in the field. The employees should be paid for extra hours depending on the amount and type of work at the organization. In this case, the investment and technical oriented employees should acquire additional payment for extra hours due to the technicality of their jobs. On average, the bank should pay employees $ 40 per extra hour. The extra hour approval process at the organization is ambiguous and consumes a lot of the employees’ time. The employees do not agree with the overtime approval process because of various reasons. First, the process entails various repetitive stages that hinders efficiency and limits most of the employees from acquiring the overtime. The process for approving the extra hours at the organization encompasses different phases that involve the supervisor and the management, which is tedious. Engaging the employee at the initial and the final section, which promotes efficiency at the workplace, can shorten the process. “A convenient overtime approval time promotes motivation among the employees, which is essential for enhancing productivity at the organization” (Bragg, 2011). The bank’s overtime approval process entails two major sections that include the call back and emergency as well as the estimated overtime. The employee initially submits the form for the estimated overtime to various individuals such as the director, department director, supervisor and the timekeeper. According to Ryan, “The employee submits the updated actual overtime form to the supervisor, timekeeper and the director for approval on weekly basis” (Ryan, 2011). The emergency and call back overtime form is submitted by the employees to various departments such as supervisor, manager, timekeeper and the human resource manager for payment. The approval process is long and repetitive which discourages most of the employees from requesting for overtime payment. Overtime system at the bank can be managed through various techniques to promote efficiency and motivation among the employees. First, the submission process is divided into four major stages that include the supervisor’s approval, timekeeper, director and the human resources. Secondly, the process is automated to reduce the time take for each of the individuals to approve the overtime form. In this case, real-time management software is integrated into the system to allow real time monitoring of the employees’ working hours. The employees checks out before leaving their workstation daily in order to enable effective evaluation of the working hours by the management. “The effective management of the working hours will promote efficiency in approving the overtime forms at the organization” (Bragg 2011). References Bragg, S. (2011). Accounting for payroll (2nd ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Braswell, M. (2014). BofA Merrill pays $7 million to settle overtime pay case. Investmentnews.com. Retrieved 30 June 2015, from http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20140509/FREE/140509896 Ryan, M. (2011). Handbook of U.S. labor statistics. Lanham, MD: Bernan Press. Read More