New Legal Ruling Impacts Timekeeping Rounding

Recently, there have been significant updates to Oregon state labor laws regarding timecard rounding practices. Specifically, timecard rounding, such as occurs in UKG Kronos, is being discontinued to comply with the updated law. Effective April 8th, 2024, the actual clock-in and clock-out times will be utilized for timekeeping and payroll calculations instead of the previous rounding option within a seven-minute window.

While the intent is to ensure that employees are accurately compensated for their time worked, with any large change like this there are understandable concerns about how these updates may affect employees, particularly regarding attendance rules and daily overtime calculations at OHSU.

According to information obtained from OHSU Payroll Department, actual clock-in and clock-out times will be utilized for timekeeping and payroll calculations. This means that there will no longer be a rounding option within a seven-minute window, as was previously allowed. Instead, precise clock-in and clock-out times will be recorded and used for payroll calculations. This will result in one minute increments of overtime if you clock out one minute late or potentially half an occurrence if you clock out one minute early or clock in one minute late.

If employees exceed their daily shift length without a voluntary waiver of daily overtime in place or if they are not eligible to waive daily overtime, they will earn overtime for the amount of time they exceed their shift length. For example, if an employee's daily shift length is 8.0 hours and they work from 09:00 AM to 4:45 PM with a default meal deduction of 30-minutes, they would generate 15 minutes of overtime. Similarly, if they worked until 4:31 PM, they would earn 1 minute of daily overtime.  

This would not be the case if a waiver of daily overtime was in place, as those will still be honored. It's important to note that waivers of daily overtime are for the benefit of workers, and management should not pressure employees into these agreements. While waivers may offer flexibility in scheduling, employees should carefully consider their options and consult with union representatives if they have any concerns or questions.

Additionally, these changes do not and will not impact attendance occurrences for employees in departments utilizing the Attendance Management functionality in Kronos. OHSU’s webpage has not yet been updated, other than to remove outdated materials, but it is promised within the week. Please be extra careful until all rules are clarified to clock in and out on time, to prevent any occurrences. We suggest setting an alarm or timer to remind yourself.

Please reach out to your timekeeper to understand how your department will be implementing these changes. We are in conversation with OHSU to see what are the options to protect workers from petty attendance occurrences, and will update this post as further information becomes available.