GSEM Employee Handbook 2022-2023

Unpaid Meal Periods Employees are generally provided with a one-hour unpaid meal period(s) as follows:

• Less than six hours worked, no meal period provided • Six to nine hours worked, one meal period provided. • Over nine hours worked, one meal period plus an additional 30 minutes provided. Meal guidelines: • Employees may, based on Council and department needs and with their manager’s approval, elect to take the one hour meal period in smaller increments, over the course of their workday • Meal periods must be scheduled with the manager and are subject to departmental staffing needs. • In unusual circumstances, a meal period may be skipped, with prior manager approval, to allow a later arrival or earlier departure than regularly scheduled. • All meal periods are unpaid; work may not be done during this time. Missouri law does not require employers to provide employees a break of any kind, including a lunch hour. These provisions are left to the discretion of the employer and may be addressed by Council policy or contract. Additional Non-Exempt considerations: • On occasion, there are Council-wide all-staff events that warrant office closure for the entire day. If that event does not last all day, full-time, non-exempt employees will be paid regular time bringing the hours to 37.5 for the week, not to exceed 7.5 total hours for the day. • If an employee is scheduled to work more than 7.5 hours on the day an unexpected event occurs, such as inclement weather, the employee may be entitled to more than 7.5 hours pay for that day. Executive Leadership Team must approve any hours paid in excess of 7.5 hours for that day. • ALL HOURS WORKED MUST BE PAID, WHETHER OR NOT THE WORK IS PERFORMED OUTSIDE OF NORMAL WORK TIME OR SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN THE REGULAR PLACE OF WORK. EXEMPT EMPLOYEE TIME REGULATIONS Exempt staff do not complete timesheets. Exempt employees’ job duties, responsibilities, and salary place them in an executive, administrative, or professional capacity as defined by the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and applicable state law. Exempt Employees will not receive additional compensation for hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week. Exempt staff have a designated “home base” or worksite. This is the Council office, a Council camp, or their home. Generally, employees work at their designated worksite. Exempt staff, especially those whose work is often done outside of the main office, are required to give their manager an anticipated schedule and access to their Outlook calendar so the manager knows the work being performed when working remotely. Flexible Work Schedules Employees will be considered for alternative work scheduling on a case-by-case basis in situations where flexible work schedules provide coverage for individual department operations at no detriment to customer service and quality output. Several alternative work schedule options are available to employees, such as: • Flextime, in which an employee works 7.5 hours per workday, but there is flexibility in an employee's set scheduled starting and ending times. • Four-day workweek • Eight and a half-hour day, half-day on Friday • Within one pay period, an employee may work up to 40 hours one week and 35 hours the next week, not to exceed 75 hours per pay period.

8