First Furlough (0 comments)
I took the first of my four mandatory furlough days earlier this week. Thanks to FLSA, I'm running into some scheduling issues. During the week in which a furlough day is scheduled, normally exempt employees are treated as hourly. That means that:
- I may not do any work in the 24 hours that constitute my furlough day.
- I may not work more than 8 hours in any day.
- I may not work more than 40 hours total this week, including 8 hours for furlough.
If I were to break any of those rules, the University of Illinois would find itself in violation of federal law and would be quite cross with me. We've been warned that employees who violate the rules face suspensions and possible fines.
We are expected to work during business hours, so the new-to-us rules mean that during the week in which a furlough day is taken, an employee is effectively disallowed from working outside of business hours. That means that employee can not be on call during the entire week containing a furlough day.
It was announced yesterday that we can also just take a pay cut equivalent to the furlough plan while continuing to work. I haven't heard much enthusiasm for working without pay, though, so I expect I'll get to continue to juggle schedules for the next few months.