We have several employees who work out of their homes in different states.  The rest of our employees are in our corporate office.  Currently our PTO program pays out unused time from the previous year.  Since we cannot truly track whether the remote employees are taking a day off, we were thinking about having a “use it or lose it” policy for anyone who does not work in the office.  The fear is that this will be a discriminatory policy because it is not based on a class of employee, it’s just based on where the people work. 

Does anyone have any input?  Is a separate policy a bad idea?

I can’t think of a reason it would be discriminatory (in an unlawful manner).  I think it’s just a business issue (how much money are you saving and how upset will this make your staff?)

It is a difference of service vs. task based assignments.  I need to be available for face to face contact during a specific volume of time.  I am service based with assigned tasks.  My contracted staff that provide a service and are project based.  They are given a task with a deadline.  Their performance evaluation is based solely on their ability to complete the project.  If the job descriptions differentiate between the two types of requirements then policies could differ.  I only base this on similar situations.  My statements have not been tested, that I have seen, in the courts.

Hi there ,

To me, your example of paying employees for time not worked has no basis for discrimination. I know of a law that predicates HOW to pay people for time they don’t work in terms of PTO . In Pennsylvania, the Wage and Hour law requires the employer follow their own WRITTEN policy. If there is no written policy- then there’s no ground to stand on for litigious employees in terms of money owed to them.

Other scenarios like on-call may require pay- but we’re talking about PTO…

Like Patrick said, will this upset the office people ? Clearly there is a different work environment, but the issue is can those employees at home appreciate the difference in their work environment compared to the office workers? If there is animosity or a perceived ideal of one group” has it better” than the other, then you’ll need to address the perception before finalizing the policy.

Consider to ask them about updating one or having two separate policies - make them a part of the process. They may already have a solution - or not…

I work from a home office now and have also worked from business location as well. everyone is their own boss when they work from home no matter what the reality is…

Brian Phillips

After re-reading the original post- I’ll summarize.

Underlying issue:  If you have a question on whether the off site staff will accurately report time off,  it doesn’t matter whether you have a use or lose or payout or any other policy as these are anticedents, not precedents to the issue of policy..

Dishonesty will need to be addressed aggressively for any policy to work.