Employee Handbook

Colman Engineering requires regular and punctual attendance by employees. You are expected to arrive at the workplace on time and ready to perform your job. Failure to comply with this policy may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

If you are not going to arrive at work or return from a break on time, you must notify your Manager as soon as possible but at least 15 minutes before your scheduled start time. If your Manager is not available, contact the front desk.

If you must miss work due to an emergency or other unexpected circumstance, notify your Manager or the front desk as soon as possible. Notice should include the expected duration of your absence and your expected time or date of return. You may be required to provide documentation of the need for the absence, as permitted by applicable law.

If you become ill during your scheduled workday and need to leave before the end of your shift, notify your Manager immediately. If you are unable to perform your job at an acceptable level due to illness, you may be sent home until you are well enough to work.

Absences will be considered excused if you requested the time off in accordance with Company policies and received the required approval for the absence. Absences will be considered unexcused if you are absent from work during scheduled work hours without permission and do not receive retroactive approval. This policy applies to all absences, including full- or partial-day absences, late arrivals, and early departures. 

Planned absences, such as vacations or medical appointments, should be arranged as far in advance as possible. If you need to be absent during the workday, attempt to schedule outside appointments or obligations so that your absence has the smallest impact possible on business operations.

The Company reserves the right to apply unused vacation, sick time, or other paid time off to unauthorized absences when permitted by applicable law. Absences resulting from approved leave, vacation, or legal requirements are exceptions to this policy.

If you fail to report to work for three or more consecutive days and have not provided proper notification, the Company will assume that you have voluntarily resigned your position and will proceed with the termination process.

Colman Engineering's workweek runs from Monday to Friday. The workday begins at 8:00 AM and ends at 5:00 PM. Employees may be required to come in early, work late, or work overtime from time to time, depending on various factors, such as workloads, staffing needs, and special projects.

Colman Engineering is required by applicable federal, state, and local laws to keep accurate records of hours worked by certain employees. To ensure that the Company has complete and accurate time records and that employees are paid for all hours worked, nonexempt employees are required to record all working time using the Company's time-tracking systems. Speak with your Manager for specific instructions.

You must accurately record all of your time to ensure you are paid for all hours worked, and must follow established Company procedures for recording your hours worked. Time must be recorded as follows:

• Immediately before starting your shift.

• Immediately after finishing work, before your meal period.

• Immediately before resuming work, after your meal period.

• Immediately after finishing work.

• Immediately before and after any other time away from work.

Notify your Manager of any pay discrepancies, unrecorded or misrecorded work hours, or any involuntarily missed meal or break periods.

Falsifying time entries is strictly prohibited. Falsifying time entries includes working "off the clock." If you falsify your own time records, or the time records of co-workers, or if you work off the clock, you will be subject to discipline up to and including termination. Immediately report to your Manager any employee, supervisor, or manager who falsifies your time entries or encourages or requires you to falsify your time entries or work off the clock.

**Timesheets for hourly employees must be submitted each work day, by 8:30 AM the following weekday morning. If you plan to be off, please complete your time log before you leave. 

Colman Engineering strives to provide a safe and healthy work environment and complies with all federal and state regulations regarding meal and rest periods. Check with your Manager regarding procedures and schedules for rest and meal breaks. The Company requests that employees accurately observe and record meal and rest periods. If you know in advance that you may not be able to take your scheduled break or meal period, let your Manager know; in addition, notify your Manager as soon as possible if you were unable to or prohibited from taking a meal or rest period.

If you are nonexempt, you may qualify for overtime pay. All overtime must be approved in advance, in writing, by your Manager.

At certain times Colman Engineering may require you to work overtime. We will attempt to give as much notice as possible in this instance. However, advance notice may not always be possible. Failure to work overtime when requested or working unauthorized overtime may result in discipline, up to and including discharge.

Unless otherwise required or exempted by law, overtime pay of one and one-half times your regular rate of pay is paid for any hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a workweek. Holidays, vacation days, and sick leave days do not count as time worked for computing overtime.

At Colman Engineering, the standard pay period is biweekly (every other Friday) for all employees, resulting in 26 paychecks per year. Pay periods run from Saturday through the second Friday (14 days).

If a pay date falls on a holiday, you will be paid on the preceding workday. 

Review your paycheck for accuracy. If you find an issue, report it to your Manager immediately.

Colman Engineering is required by law to make certain deductions from your pay each pay period, including deductions for federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare (FICA) taxes, state income taxes, state unemployment taxes, state disability insurance taxes, etc. and any other deductions required under law or by court order for wage garnishments. 

The amount of your tax deductions will depend on your earnings and the information you list on your federal Form W-4 and applicable state withholding form. Permissible deductions for exempt employees may also include, but are not limited to, deductions for full-day absences for reasons other than sickness or disability and certain disciplinary suspensions. 

You may also authorize certain voluntary deductions from your paycheck where permissible under state law. Your deductions will be reflected in your wage statement. If you have any questions about deductions from your pay, contact Human Resources.

The Company will not make deductions to your pay that are prohibited by federal, state, or local law. Review your paycheck for errors each pay period and immediately report any discrepancies to Human Resources.

You will be reimbursed in full for any isolated, inadvertent, or improper deductions, as defined by law. If an error is found, you will receive an immediate adjustment, which will be paid no later than your next regular payday.

The Company will not retaliate against employees who report erroneous deductions in accordance with this policy.

Some nonexempt positions within Colman Engineering require travel. The Company pays nonexempt employees for travel time in accordance with federal and state law. For purposes of this policy, the regular workday is 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. 

Home-to-Work Travel

If you travel from home before the regular workday and return to your home at the end of the workday, you are engaged in ordinary home-to-work travel, which is not work time.

Home-to-Work on a Special One-Day Assignment in Another City

If you regularly work at a fixed location in one city and you are given a special one-day assignment in another city, but return home the same day, the time spent traveling to and returning from the other city is work time, except that the Company may deduct/not count that time you would normally spend commuting to the regular work site.

Travel That Is All in a Day's Work

Your time spent in travel as part of your principal activity, such as travel from job site to job site during the workday, is work time and must be counted as hours worked.

Travel Away from Home Community

Travel that keeps you away from home overnight is travel away from home. Travel away from home is clearly work time when it cuts across your workday. The time is not only hours worked on regular working days during normal working hours but also during corresponding hours on nonworking days. The Company will not consider as work time that time spent in travel away from home outside of your regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or automobile.

Work Performed While Traveling

Any work you perform while traveling must be counted as hours worked.

Calculating and Reporting Travel Time

You are responsible for accurately tracking, calculating, and reporting your travel time. Travel time should be calculated by rounding up to the nearest quarter hour.

The purpose of this policy is to define approved business travel expenses and the authority for incurring and approving such expenses at Colman Engineering.

Travel expenses are the reasonable and necessary expenses incurred by employees when traveling on approved Colman Engineering business trips. Travel is limited to business activities for which other means of communication is inadequate and for which prior approval from your Manager has been received.

Advances

The Company does not generally provide cash travel advances. Normally, you will be expected to use personal credit cards and/or your own cash and submit approved expenses on the standard Expense Report Form.

Travel Expenses

The Company pays the actual amounts incurred for appropriate expenses when you are on travel assignments. Examples of typical expenses include the following:

• Airline tickets.

• Meals and lodging.

• Car rental, bus, taxi, parking.

• Telephone and fax.

• Laundry and dry cleaning (trips exceeding one week only, unless emergency).

• Business supplies and services.

• Associated gratuities.

• Other expenses necessary to achieve the business purposes.

Family Members

The Company will pay the travel expenses of spouses or other family members only when their presence is necessary to the business purpose of the trip and when approved in advance in writing by the Company President.

Air Travel

Use economy or tourist class airfares when traveling on Company business. Airfares are to be charged to personal credit cards and subsequently submitted for reimbursement on a monthly expense report.

Hotels

Neither in-room movies nor refreshment bars are approved Company expenses.

Insurance

The Company does not pay for personal travel insurance for employees.

Personal Vehicles

When using your own vehicle for business purposes, you must maintain insurance coverage as required by law and may not have more than 2 points on your driving record. 

Travel between your home and primary office is not considered to be business travel. You may not use your personal vehicle for business travel without authorization. You will be reimbursed for vehicle use at the standard IRS mileage rate. The Company President must authorize any deviation from this policy.

Reporting

Report approved expenses and include a description of the expense, its business purpose, date, place, and the participants.

Colman Engineering will not discriminate or retaliate against you for inquiring about, discussing, or disclosing information regarding employee wages, benefits, or other compensation.

This policy does not require you to disclose such information about yourself to any other employee or former employee.

However, if you have access to or knowledge of the compensation information of other employees as a part of your essential job functions, you may not disclose that information to individuals who do not otherwise have authorized access to it, unless the disclosure is:

• In response to a formal charge or complaint;

• In furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or other action (including an investigation conducted by the Company); or

• Consistent with the legal duty of the Company to furnish information.

If you believe that you have been discriminated or retaliated against in violation of this policy, immediately report your concerns to Human Resources.

Nothing in this policy will be enforced to interfere with, restrain or coerce, or retaliate against employees regarding their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.