The department heads, in fixing the individual compensation of their assistants, deputies and employees, shall give due consideration to the duties, responsibilities and length of service; the nature and technical or physical difficulty and demands of the work required; as well as their past job performance. After two years of employment and at the discretion of the elected official or department head, an employee may be raised to the maximum salary in their grade position. Individual compensation shall be subject to the approval of the county commission within the annual budget setting process.
Employee Grade and/or Salary Change
To avoid adverse effects to the salary/grade scales heretofore incorporated into this personnel manual, all elected officials or department heads wishing to change grades and/or salaries of their employees must first appear before the Wage and Benefits Review Board for discussion and presentation of their desired change prior to presentation before the Roane County Commission. The Wage and Benefit Review Board will make written recommendation to the County Commission for review at the time the change is requested by the elected official or department head.
Pay Periods
Pay periods for all employees will begin the first day and end the fifteenth day of each month and begin the sixteenth day and end the last day of each month. Pay checks will be issued to all employees on the fifteenth day for work performed during the period from the sixteenth through the last day of the previous month and on the last day of each month for work performed during the period from the first through the fifteenth day of the current month, except when the fifteenth or last day of the months falls on a non-working day, in which case pay checks will be issued on the last working day before the non-working day. The county commission may, by order, alter any date of issuance of paychecks.
The department head employing any temporary or part-time employee shall submit to the county clerk or administrative assistant by the seventh and the twenty-second of each month a time sheet/voucher indicating the number of hours worked by that employee in the preceding pay period together with the hourly wage due. Said voucher will be processed and the paycheck will be issued at the same time as the paychecks for the regular employees.
Any overtime for a regular employee must be submitted to the county clerk by the employee’s department head by the seventh and twenty-second of each month for work performed in the preceding pay period. Overtime and/or additional wages will be included in the employee’s regular payroll check.
In the event any employee’s check is to be adjusted because of sick leave or any other cause, the adjustment will be made in the following paycheck, or as prescribed by law.
Hours of Work
The official hours of the Roane County Courthouse are set by the Roane County Commission. Employees shall have a one-hour lunch break and offices with more than one full-time employee shall remain open during the lunch break by staggering the employees’ lunch hours. Work hours of the employees need not coincide with nor fall entirely within the hours when the courthouse is open. Occasional missed work hours may be made up with prior approval of the elected official/department head. Flex-time schedules will also require prior approval of the elected official/department head. As deemed necessary, elected officials or department heads may close their offices briefly for special occasions.
Overtime and Compensatory Time
It is the intention of this policy to comply with the regulations set forth in the Fair Labor Standards Act. Overtime shall not be paid until an employee exceeds forty (40) hours of work in a given week. For each hour worked in excess of forty (40) in a given week, an employee shall be paid at the rate of one and one-half (1 ½) times the regular rate of pay in the following manner: the yearly salary will be divided by 2,080 hours, then multiplied by 1 ½ to compute the overtime rate. Compensatory time must be taken within twelve calendar months after its accrual.
Compensatory time can be given in lieu of overtime pay as long as there is a written agreement to this effect between the employee and the elected official on file in the county clerk’s office and in the office of the elected official involved prior to the time the overtime work is performed and/or the time the compensatory time is requested and employee’s time sheet must show overtime worked and compensatory time taken.
SATURDAY COMPENSATORY TIME
Because of the inconsistency of courthouse offices that require county personnel to work on Saturday, it is the consensus of the Wage and Benefit Review Board that courthouse employees who work Saturdays will be compensated hour for hour for their Saturday work. However, no more than two half days can be accumulated at a time and accumulated time must be taken within thirty days. Compensatory time agreements will need to be signed by all employees that work on Saturdays.
Employee Time Sheet
Employees’ time sheets must be approved by the department head and a copy, with attached leave forms, turned in to the county clerk’s office at the end of each month. The time sheet must be signed by both the employee and the department head.
Time sheets for each employee shall be maintained in the employee’s binder in the county clerk’s office. The time sheet shall include holidays taken, vacation leave taken, sick leave taken, personal holidays taken, bereavement leave taken, military leave taken, jury duty leave taken and any compensatory time earned and taken.