Let us say an employee normally works from Monday to Friday, 8 hours each. The employer considers Sunday to be the first day of the work week.
Whenever the employee works more than 40 hours in a week the employer being a good and law abiding employer pays overtime in compliance with the FLSA.
One day the employer gets a project which is 8 hours from its home base. This project is expected to take 8-8 hour working days to complete. Normally the employee would drive to the City of the project on Monday morning, work 8 hours at the project Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and return home on Friday and no overtime would be incurred. Then the employee would do this the next week. We can see that this will require 3 weeks and 3 round trips to the project City to complete the project.
But the employer gets an idea. He thinks, I can have the employee stay home on Monday, travel to the project City on Tuesday and work on the project from Wednesday to Saturday incurring 40 hours of work. Sunday is the start of a new work week and will find the employee still be at the project from Sunday to Wednesday and will return home on Thursday ending the second 40 hour workweek.
There is less time spent looking at the windshield, less fuel and wear and tear on the employer's vehicle.
Is this legal under the FLSA? Is it legal to push two working weeks together like that and consider no overtime has been worked.
I am not sure.
The answer lies in the definition of the work week and more particularly the start of the work week. I'm not sure if the work week starts on the first day of work for purposes of the Act or if it can start on some set day determined by the employer (usually Sunday) and the 40 hour period can float anywhere within the 7 days.
If I was at the office, I'd go look at the poster prominently displayed in the copy room. Off the top of my head, I think the employer is on solid ground unless the rules say something about consecutive days. A person that we both worked with at different times, recently deceased, was religiously opposed to working on Saturdays. Can an employer disregard those beliefs and require it? I don't know the answer to that either.
''Travel Time'' Is ''Work Time''
The employee has worked 80 hours in a 2 workweek period. The government is OK with that.
If you had religious conflicts with working on Saturday or Sunday you could find another job. Or the employer could be generous, pay you per diem on Sunday and you work Monday to Friday the second week. There might be a problem if one employee requires Saturday off and the other Sunday.
It is when the employer says travel on your own time that gets the government's ear. However the employer could compensate you at a different rate for travel outside of your 40 hour work week.
Suppose it is a 40 hour project 8 hours away. The employer could send you out to travel on Saturday, you work Sunday to Thursday and travel back on Friday. That might pass the Government stink test.
Paul in PA
All I know is that Uncle Sam has used that work schedule. When I worked for the USA up in Alaska, we would work 10 days on, and 4 days off. I reckon if the USofA can utilize that work schedule, probably legal for any other entity.
