The standard County work week is 12:00 am Thursday through 11:59 pm Wednesday. All County Departments and Offices must use the standard work week for all employees unless specifically exempted by the Board of County Commissioners. Currently the only exception is for those employees who are covered by 28 day work cycles.
Paid rest periods of 15 minutes are granted for every 4 hours of time worked. Paid breaks are a “use or lose it” situation. Paid breaks cannot be taken at the beginning or the end of a shift. Paid breaks cannot be combined with a lunch period, or in place of an unpaid lunch period.
Employees who work in excess of five (5) hours each day are entitled to an unpaid lunch for a minimum 30 minutes, when all of the following apply: the period is at least 30 minutes long, the employee must be completely relieved of all duties and must not perform any duties during this period, and free to leave the duty post. If all three criteria are not met then the break will be considered “time worked” and must be paid.
OVERTIME
Exempt means that the employee is not eligible for overtime payments. Exempt employees are paid a salary to perform their duties regardless of the number of hours it takes. Exempt employees are not entitled to additional compensation or time off for “time worked” over 40 hours in a given work week.
Non-Exempt employees are eligible for overtime payments at a time-and-one-half rate after the employee works more than 40 hours in the specified work week. Non-exempt employees must be paid for all “time worked”. Any non-exempt employee who normally works less than 40 hours per week is not eligible for overtime payments unless they work more than 40 hours in a work week.
Law enforcement and fire fighting employees are eligible under Federal law to use a longer work period for overtime calculation than the normal 40-hour work week. Sheriff’s Office employees are paid overtime in accordance with the provisions of the Sheriff's policies and in compliance with applicable State and Federal law.
Vacation leave, sick leave, emergency leave, holidays, and other forms of paid or unpaid leave used are not considered "time worked" for the purposes of overtime calculation.
MANAGEMENT CONTROL
Decision Makers must ensure that any overtime worked is kept under strict management control. Overtime may be worked only upon prior approval of the Decision Maker or designee or in compliance with the policies of the Decision Maker.
Non-exempt employees also bear the responsibility for obtaining supervisory approval prior to working any hours in excess of or outside of their normal business hours.
Any non-exempt employee who works unauthorized overtime will be paid for the unauthorized overtime, but they may be subject to disciplinary action.
