Previous policy at work was that you could clock in 10 minutes before your shift.
The thing is, you wouldn't get paid for that.
And YES, that was legal, because the company didn't require you to work those extra 10 minutes. You could do so voluntarily, but you were not forced. I did it a lot of times simply out of convenience. There are a limited number of clocks around.
Also, if you were late 10 minutes you ALWAYS got rounded BACK. So you wouldn't get in trouble, and you would always get your full pay.
Those two things made the policy 100% legal in my state, I've done a lot of research on it.
So the new policy is that you can only clock in five minutes early. But you will now be PAID for those five minutes.
The downside is you can now only clock in five minutes late without a penalty.
The other new part of the policy, is that if you're at the clock 10-15 minutes before the end of your shift to wait in line, you need to just clock out and go home.
So, that happens daily. I work in manufacturing and for about 90% of the plant our machines NEED to be fully shut down about 30 minutes before the shift ends for a quick cleanout. Which means that most people are finished and in line to leave 10-15 minutes early.
I fucking love this policy. I don't get why my coworkers are mad.
It specifically states you only need to clock out early IF you are AT the clock. You can stand by your machine with a broom in your hand, you can hide in the shitter, you can fucking hide wherever.
Like I said, I clock in 10 minutes early daily without pay. Now I get to clock in 5 minutes early WITH pay, and then I also get to LEAVE 15 minutes early, with only losing 10 minutes of pay per day. I have a 25 minute commute. I'm now getting home every night 15 minutes earlier, while only losing 50 minutes of pay per week.
How the fuck are all my coworkers mad about this? They can keep their 50 minutes of pay if they just pretend to be busy, while making an additional 25 hours of pay per week clocking in five minute early.
They all insist the new policy is making them “lose out”, but it's the absolute opposite!