Overtime Compensation Requests
1038.1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE
It is the policy of the Department to compensate non-exempt salaried employees who work authorized overtime either by payment of wages as agreed and in effect through the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), or by the allowance of accrual of compensatory time off. In order to qualify for either, the employee must complete and submit a "Time Off - Overtime Request," as soon as practical after overtime is worked.
1038.1.1 DEPARTMENT POLICY
Because of the nature of police work, and the specific needs of the Department, a degree of flexibility concerning overtime policies must be maintained.
Non-exempt employees are not authorized to volunteer work time to the Department. All requests to work overtime shall be approved in advance by a supervisor. If circumstances do not permit prior approval, then approval shall be sought as soon as practical during the overtime shift and in no case later than the end of shift in which the overtime is worked.
Short periods of work at the end of the normal duty day (e.g., less than one hour in duration) may be handled unofficially between the supervisor and the employee by flexing a subsequent shift schedule to compensate for the time worked rather than by submitting requests for overtime payments. If the supervisor authorizes or directs the employee to complete a form for such a period, the employee shall comply.
The individual employee may request compensatory time in lieu of receiving overtime payment, however, the employee may not exceed 480 hours of compensatory time.
1038.2 REQUEST FOR OVERTIME COMPENSATION
Employees shall submit all overtime compensation requests to their immediate supervisors as soon as practicable for verification and forwarding to the Administration Division.
Failure to submit a request for overtime compensation in a timely manner may result in discipline.
1038.2.1 EMPLOYEES RESPONSIBILITY
Employees shall complete the requests as soon as practical and shall submit them for approval.
1038.2.2 SUPERVISORS RESPONSIBILITY
The supervisor who verifies the overtime earned shall verify that the overtime was worked before approving the request.
1038.3 ACCOUNTING FOR OVERTIME WORKED
Employees are to record the actual time worked in an overtime status. In some cases, the Memorandum of Understanding provides that a minimum number of hours will be paid, (e.g., two hours for Court, four hours for outside overtime).
1038.3.1 ACCOUNTING FOR PORTIONS OF AN HOUR
When accounting for less than a full hour, time worked shall be rounded up to the nearest quarter of an hour as indicated by the following chart:
TIME WORKED INDICATE ON CARD
1 to 15 minutes ¼ hour
16 to 30 minutes hour
31 to 45 minutes ¾ hour
46 to 60 minutes 1 hour
1038.3.2 VARIATION IN TIME REPORTED
Where two or more employees are assigned to the same activity, case, or court trial and the amount of time for which payment is requested varies from that reported by the other officer, the Watch Commander or other approving supervisor may require each employee to include the reason for the variation on the back of the overtime payment request.
