How is time clock rounding legal?

At my previous job, the time clock was digital and I got paid for every minute I worked. At the new place where I am salaried but paid for time that I work over a certain amount of hours, any overtime is rounded. It seems that they round, almost always if not always in their favor. I clock in 10 minutes before my shift, it is rounded so I clocked in on time. I clock in 10 minutes after my shift was suppoosed to end, it is rounded so that I clocked in when my shift ends. I already have to work more than 40 hours without getting paid (the salaried part). It angers me that I don't get paid for the extra time less than 15 minutes on wither side. The same is true for everyone there that punches the clock there. It is a traditional card that prints the time on the card and then someone in the office figures the hours.
How is this legal? I thought that this was one of the rights that the labor movement fought for when some factories were even worse in rounding to the hour, always in their favor.

(I know, shame on me) had our suspicions that they were doing that, but could never prove it, unfortunately. I don't think it should be legal at all.

The rules will vary by state but paying you for less than your hours worked sounds illegal to me.

I used to work for a place that did something similar (and who would also go in and alter timesheets after the fact to remove any extra time even if it was worked in order to preserve management bonuses for conserving labor hours) and a while after I left I got a settlement check in the mail for a class action suit somebody brought because of the pattern of underpaying for true hours worked.

Edit: I'm under no obligation to protect the greedy bastards, I may as well tell you this was at Best Buy. Jesus, they sucked to work for.

I think (but I am no expert in this area) that what they are doing is illegal as hell.

Can't be legal -- it shouldn't be, for sure. Bozos. I'm not sure what good it would do you to kick up a fuss about it (actually, if they're like so many capitalist running dog pig-dog lackey oppressors of the proletariat, it'd be a decidely bad idea), but an anonymous inquiry might be worth a try.

The casino where I worked here last year (they were terrible employers -- even worse than most Vegas casinos -- and routinely broke all sorts of labor laws with impunity) required us to clock in ten minutes before our shifts started, so we'd be wherever we were supposed to be and ready to go at the exact time we were supposed to start work. We also had to wait until ten minutes after the end of our shifts to clock out -- they figured people needed an average of ten minutes to get from their work position to the slaves' employee exit -- for the same reason, the inevitable result being that there'd be a long line of people waiting ten minutes to clock out at each of the shift changes. You'd get written up (and, on the inane and otherwise bogus point system, rack up points toward dismissal) if you were a minute late (i.e., only nine minutes early) swiping your ID card at the start of your shift or a minute early doing the same at the end. I don't know if it is standard practice in casinos here (most are awful employers) or if it was illegal, but it sure sucked...not that they showed us in any other way that they thought we were human, anyway. :grr:

I ended up among the "élite" of the casino's employees (penthouse dressing room!), courtesy of becoming an Elvis there, but we were still treated pretty poorly. Before I moved on up, one of my future peers complained to OSHA about a flagrant hazard at work -- after several of her coworkers failed to get any response by going through the casino's hierarchy -- and the casino, not knowing who sicced OSHA on to them -- responded with small acts of petty harrassment (the person who lodged the complaint eventually left, and the casino never did follow OSHA's demands) and by taking away the sodas and juices that they'd previously stocked those employees' suites with. :eyes:

F***ers.

Even with the on-again, off-again nature of what I do, when I think of working for the damned casino I am very happy to be self-employed and no longer answering directly to any humorless casino management f***knuckle. Power to the people!!

I work within standing long jump distance of the time clock (if the wall wasn't there) though so I think that it takes a lot less than 5 minutes to get to my work location.

I've only worked a couple of time-clock jobs, so I had no idea what the usual story is.

If they think you move so slowly that it takes five minutes to get to your work area from the time clock, you should walk such that if does take you five minutes to make the trip (heel-to-toe walking, with perhaps a bit of moonwalking thrown in if you're making to much progress) and then maintain that same exact pace in everything you do throughout the workday... :D

Full-time associates are allowed to work no more than 40 hours per week. When the company was first founded in 1979, each store had a timekeeper. This person was required to calculate every associate's hours then fax the time sheets to Atlanta. It was more efficient at that time to use time clock rounding. Now...our time clock is connected via TCP/IP to the HP9000 in the back of the store, which talks to a bigger HP9000 in Atlanta. Therefore, there is no reason to use time clock rounding, but we keep it because that's the way we've always done it.

The Home Depot's time clock rounding works as follows:

Each hour is divided into four 15-minute periods: seven minutes to either side of 00, 15, 30 and 45.

Except this week it's six minutes to either side.

And next week it will be five minutes to either side.

And if you should clock in at 4:55am, the system will assume that you are going to clock out at 1:55pm, and it recenters the "15 minutes," which is actually 10 minutes, around 1:55pm instead of 2pm.

Tomorrow I have off. I am going to go out and do my level best to get a new job. The stress of this fucking time clock, and of the fact that I need two people on the floor to meet safety regs but I don't have the second person, has me tasting stomach acid in my mouth all the time.

If you were more than six minures eiter way, it would be rounded up or down...

With digital punch cards and computer sign in's...

I have no idea....

But, have a go calling the Labor Relations Board...

Just remember who is now in charge of any government board...

6 minutes was the cut-off........

And they did abide by it......they knew we were watching, and the union was as well.