About 1,000 Staff to Become Eligible for Overtime Beginning Dec. 1
Duke taking steps to lessen impact of transition on staff
About 1,000 staff members at Duke will move from exempt (salaried) to non-exempt (hourly paid) positions and will become newly eligible for overtime effective Dec. 1, 2016.
As announced in May, the Department of Labor introduced new regulations that will expand eligibility for overtime to specific positions that are compensated less than $47,476 per year, effective Dec. 1, 2016. Those under the pay threshold will be considered to hold a non-exempt position and be eligible for overtime, which must be approved in advance by the manager.
Since that time, Duke officials have been working to assess the impact and develop plans for how best to move affected staff members currently in exempt positions making less than $47,476 to non-exempt status in compliance with the new federal regulation.
“Our goal in this process has been to limit the individual, operational, and fiscal impact, while meeting the Department of Labor requirements,” said Kyle Cavanaugh, vice president for Administration.
Cavanaugh said that Duke was taking several steps to help reduce the impact of the transition on staff. Those steps include keeping staff on the monthly payroll and paying them a salary based on their normal work schedule during December 2016, January and February 2017. The affected staff members will also track and be paid for any overtime worked during this time. The transition to the biweekly payroll will take place in March, when there are three biweekly pay dates.
“In addition, a supplemental payment equivalent to two week’s pay will be made in March to staff affected by the change to help address cash flow issues related to the transition,” he said.
As communicated earlier, Duke will grandfather those affected by this change to ensure their retirement plan and vacation/paid time off accrual rates do not change as a result of the new federal regulations.
For more information about this change, please visit a special Duke Human Resources website with a video and detailed FAQ. Once the final list of staff members affected by this change has been confirmed, Human Resources will distribute additional materials to assist in the transition.