PAP.7.13.090 Conference Attendance

(a) Employees shall attend the entire Conference and obtain all materials. Employees who fail to attend the entire Conference may not be reimbursed or receive full credit during reconciliation for amounts received through travel advance.

(b) All hours spent attending Conferences shall be counted as work time for purposes of compensation, or accrual of compensatory time, as applicable, unless ALL of the following four criteria are met: (1) attendance is outside of the employee's regular working hours; (2) attendance is in fact voluntary; (3) the Conference is not directly related to the employee's job; and (4) the employee does not perform any productive work during such attendance. For example, if a payroll clerk attends a one-day Conference to learn accounting software, and the Conference lasts ten (9) hours, and has a one (1) hour lunch, the employee has nine (9) hours work time.

(1) Attendance is not voluntary, of course, if the employer requires it. It is not voluntary in fact if the employee is given to understand or led to believe that his present working conditions or the continuance of his employment would be adversely affected by nonattendance.

(2) The training is directly related to the employee's job if it is designed to make the employee handle his job more effectively as distinguished from training him for another job, or to a new or additional skill. For example, a stenographer who is given a course in stenography is engaged in an activity to make her a better stenographer. Time spent in such a course given by the employer or under his auspices is hours worked. However, if the stenographer takes a course in bookkeeping, it may not be directly related to her job. Thus, the time she spends voluntarily in taking such a bookkeeping course, outside of regular working hours, need not be counted as working time. Where a training course is instituted for the bona fide purpose of preparing for advancement through upgrading the employee to a higher skill, and is not intended to make the employee more efficient in his present job, the training is not considered directly related to the employee's job even though the course incidentally improves his skill in doing his regular work.

(3) If an employee on his own initiative attends an independent school, college or independent trade school after hours, the time is not hours worked for his employer even if the courses are related to his job.

(4) There are some special situations where the time spent in attending lectures, training sessions and courses of instruction is not regarded as hours worked. For example, an employer may establish for the benefit of his employees a program of instruction that corresponds to courses offered by independent bona fide institutions of learning. Voluntary attendance by an employee at such courses outside of working hours would not be hours worked even if they are directly related to his job, or paid for by the employer.