The Universities in Idaho have hired “temporary” or “part-time” workers (under 20 hours per week or less than 6 months per year) for years to avoid paying benefits and to get around any sort of testing and ranking of applicants (although the State has pretty much tossed the objective merit hiring laws).
The fun comes when temporary/part-time employees are asked to work off the clock, adjust written time cards by shifting hours worked, etc. and the auditor has to go in and deal with the mess after a “disgruntled employee” reports it.
Of course any employer who gets caught doing that is in a world of hurt with the DOL.
I had a situation when we had to shut down operations on a Friday because of a tropical storm and severe flooding in here in central PA and some flooding in our building. Employees could take PTO for the day we were closed, and we were willing to allow employees with less than 8 hours in their PTO bank to get an advance on their PTO, but my hourly 1st shift production workers and their supervisor came up with the idea that they, instead of using their PTO, would just come in and work that Sunday to make up the time.
But because Sunday was the first day of the next workweek, that would mean for that two week pay period, they’d get 8 hours of OT (32 hours worked for the first week and 48 hours worked the next to make up their 80 hours but legally the 8 hours worked over 40 during the second work week would be OT), and we as a company were not willing to pay 8 hours of OT for the entire 1st shift. The employees and their supervisor said, “Just pay us straight time, it’s OK, we’ll even sign a document to say it’s OK with us to be paid straight time.” Au Contraire, I had to tell them. While I sympathized with them wanting to make the time up and not dip into their PTO bank, I had to quote DOL rules regarding OT and how employees, even if “voluntarily” cannot waive their rights to OT and how the employer is always responsible.
I’m sure some employers play fast and loose with falsifying time cards, having employees work off the clock and shifting hours worked from one work week to the next, but I will not allow it where I work – the risks and potential fines and penalties are just too great not to mention that an employee could sign a document and then later come back and make a DOL complaint that they were coerced into to do so.