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<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 12/6/2005 6:38:02 PM Central Standard Time,
dporritt@mail.smu.edu writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><=
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Wim:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">In August of 2004 the labor department (federal)=
made
some rules changes that tightened up the criteria for exempt and non-exemp=
t
status. HR here could not make my job non-exempt and follow those ne=
w
rules. Fully 50% of our staff was changed at that time to non-exempt=
status to keep the school legal. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Frankly, I am happy to be hourly. The term=
“exempt” means that the employer is exempt from paying you=
overtime.
They can require you to be there all kinds of crazy hours and they don=
t have
to pay you anything but your salary. I’m personally thrilled=
to death
that if I come in for a Sunday tuning, I clock in and out and take a short=
day
later in the week. They don’t want me to do overtime as that=
would
stretch the budget. I can’t think of why I’d want th=
em to be exempt from
following labor laws. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">If you really want the exempt status, check curr=
ent
labor laws before you write the job description so you can word it like yo=
u
want it. I know supervision of a certain number (?) of people counts=
,
but I don’t know the other criteria.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">dp<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">David M.
Porritt</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P></DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Dave & Fred</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Your reasons for wanting to stay on hourly are probably very legitimate=
.
But for me that is not an issue. In the 4 and a half years since I've been h=
ere,
I've never been "forced" to work hours I didn't want to. I don't mind coming=
in
on a Sunday to tune for a concert or recital. Most of the time it's rig=
ht
after church anyway, and the school is only a couple of block from my church=
. (I
live 7 miles from both of them.) A couple of times I've been asked to be her=
e on
Saturday, and I put in for comp time, and got it. But again, it hasn't been
enough to say I am being taken advantage of. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I am allowed a great deal of flexibility with my hours. So far no one h=
as
ever questioned me about what hours I work. So for me to go to professional
status is not that big a deal, with one exception. As an hourly staff, =
I
only get one day per moth personal leave/vacation days. As a professional st=
aff,
I get one and a half days per month. That's basically a week per y=
ear.
That come sin handy during the summer. And with the extra days, I can also
schedule some weekends off if I feel like it, (s long as they don't interfer=
e
with concert schedules).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As far as qualifying for professional staff, when I talked with the peo=
ple
at HR, they told me they use the LOB definition. SoI looked it up, and this =
is
what it says. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"Applicable to employees who perform work requiring advanced knowledge =
and
education, work in an artistic field which is original and creative, work as=
a
teacher, or work as a computer system analyst, programmer, software engineer=
, or
similarly skilled worker in the computer software field; who regularly exerc=
ise
discretion and judgment; who perform work which is intellectual and varied i=
n
character, the accomplishment of which cannot be standardized as to time; wh=
o
receive a salary which meets the requirements of the exemption (except docto=
rs,
lawyers, teachers and certain computer occupations); and who do not devote m=
ore
than 20% of their time to work other than that described above."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I think I qualify for all of this, and the salary I was told has to be
above $35,000, which also qualifies me. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Thank you, Alan, for your description. I will make a few minor changes,=
but
for the most part, that is exactly what I wanted.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Wim <BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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