USA Operations Centers Unclassified Trainees May 2017

State/Area Exceptions

As this policy is reviewed, please note the following State/Area for which exceptions exist:

Not Applicable

Specific details on each exception may be found within the General Information section of this text.

Overview

This policy deals with unique issues relating to Unclassified Trainees.

General Information

Transfers to Unclassified Trainee Positions

Any movement from a Professional/Technical position to an unclassified trainee position is considered a "transfer".

There is no change in timing for future merit considerations.

There is no salary change in conjunction with this transfer unless it occurs on the employee's normal review date.

Movement of Para-Professional/Support Employees to Unclassified Trainee Positions

This type of change is handled as a promotion.

See the Job Movement - Promotion, Job Change, Level Reductions, Lateral Move policy for further details.

Why Trainees are Non-Exempt

Trainees are in a non-exempt status and require close supervision to make sure that additional regular pay and overtime obligations are not incurred as a result of work assignments that require extra workweek hours. However, any additional regular pay and overtime obligations that are incurred must be recorded on the timesheet and will be paid.

Supervision and control requires proper instruction to non-exempt trainee employees, plus knowledge of the hours worked from day to day.

The only additional pay and overtime obligation that normally occurs is for travel time being paid in compliance with the Travel-Salary Obligation Policy.

In those states that have daily overtime laws, overtime must be recorded and paid for all hours worked in excess of 8 hours each day.

It is important that your present group of non-exempt employees understand the distinctions between the working hours concepts for non-exempt and exempt personnel. New hires in particular will need to be indoctrinated to the concept that the controlled week approach applies only to the period in which they are being trained.

Note: An exempt employee taking a position in a department unrelated to their past job experience should be placed on a timesheet while their "predominant activity is training". This means that the employee will be paid for all hours worked during the training period including overtime if it applies. The employee can be returned to an exempt status when their management deems it appropriate. If the department has no formalized training, the employee should be left in an exempt status.