As a business owner, can I legally deduct time from my employees time cards if I find they are not working?

Question:

while they are punched in? I told them to punch out and leave and they said they would at 4:30, closing time... so they sat in there break room for 20 minutes until it was 4:30. Can I deduct the 20 minutes, or will have to have some sort of proof, a video or something, from their next pay check?

Answer:
You cannot just deduct time from their cards. You can tell hem legally that if they are just standing around that they need to go home. When they told you that they would leave at 4:30 and just sat around for 20 minutes they were blatantly mocking you. Next time they do that send them home, lets see how they like not getting paid.

You can't deduct the money from the paycheck, technically workers are allowed 2/20 minute breaks during an 8 hour shift. What you can do is follow your policy if you have one of writting the persons up for using company time inappropriately, then sit down with them go over the consequences (those could be a second warning, reduction in hours, or firing) and have them sign the document. It is usually better to have someone else present like their supervisor or another manager when doing this.

No you cannot. They were on duty, at your work place. You may fire them if you want, depending on the labor laws of your area and if they neglected some task. However you can't just take money off their check because they were not actively doing something while they were clocked in.

You don't want to risk being petty, which may be the reason they felt the need to sit in the break room for 20 minutes. If you are a micromanager not letting the employees have some time to interact with each other they are going to resent you and work even less. Some employee slack time is actually good for morale. You don't want to squash that.

You may have legal issues on your hands if you deduct time from an employees timecard without Solid Proof. If you see them slacking, go in and tell them to get back to work and make sure that they know it is their verbal warning. If they continue to waste time, write them up and present it to them. After three write ups you may fire them with solid proof that you did everything to try to fix the problem first. DO NOT DEDUCT FROM THEIR PAYCHECKS. You will get into trouble not them.

fire them next time

As a business owner, can I legally deduct time from my employees time cards if I find they are not working?

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