How to Determine the Hours Worked for a Resident Employee

Many oil workers reside on the rig for long periods of time.

Resident employees live at their work site for extended periods of time or permanently. Examples of resident employees include oil rig workers, apartment complex managers or students who work as resident assistants in dormitories. Not all time spent at the employer's premises is considered time worked--employees take time off for eating, sleeping, entertaining or other daily living activities. Figuring out how many hours for these employees is complicated and should be done in advance with a "reasonable agreement," a document that outlines expectations for hours worked.

Instructions

1. Review meal periods, sleep times and waiting times with your employee. Waiting times are when the employee is in between work periods and is waiting to become engaged in work again. For example, if you agree that the employee is relieved of duty at noon but then is on duty again at 6 p.m., that period is a waiting time. Waiting times are generally not paid working hours.

2. Consider other relevant factors, such as any restrictions on personal time or possible interruptions of sleep time. For example, if the employee is on call, this is not generally counted as paid working hours. However, if the employee is called and required to work, that becomes paid working time.

3. Deduct waiting periods, meal times and sleep times from 24 hours to get the total number of hours worked per day.

4. Add any anticipated calls during on-call time to Step 3. You may want to use historical averages to compute the number of hours the employee is likely to be called. For example, an apartment manager may be on call 24/7, but they may only average 30 minutes of actual call time per day.

Tips & Warnings

• Consult with the employee before drafting the reasonable agreement. In order for the agreement to be valid, it must be an employer-employee agreement and cannot be the work of the employer without input from the employee.

• The Department of Labor does not require an exact record of worked hours for resident employees. However, a reasonable agreement must be written and you must indicate that the agreement is adhered to.

References

• U.S. Department of Labor: FLSA Hours Worked Advisor