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-4- <br />Issues (cont.): 6. When a non-exempt employee is paid a <br />uniform allowance and does not incur <br />uniform expenses equal to or greater <br />than the allowance, all or part of the <br />allowance must be added to the base <br />wage prior to computing overtime. <br />The past practice of the City has been <br />to give all officers (uniformed and <br />plain clothes) the uniform allowance <br />provided for in the union contract at <br />the beginning of the year without re- <br />ceiving confirmation of expenses. The <br />union contract stipulates that the City <br />will provide uniforms, however, in our <br />case that is -met by the uniform allow- <br />ance. The uniform allowance provision <br />of the contract provides that the City <br />will provide a uniform allowance on a <br />voucher basis. In other words, the <br />City pays the allowance when the em- <br />ployee incurs the expense(s) related <br />to the purchase of uniforms or equip- <br />ment. <br />To avoid paying the uniform allowance <br />twice, the City should immediately <br />implement a program of paying the <br />uniform allowance only when expensels) <br />are incurred up to the maximum of the <br />allowance. The result of this would <br />be that uniformed officers would have <br />to "front-end" their uniform expenses <br />and plain clothes officers, i.e. Chief, <br />Sergeant/Investigator, and Investigator, <br />would receive none as they do not wear <br />uniforms during the conduct of their <br />duties. <br />Finally, the FLSA has specific standards as <br />to the records to be maintained on each em- <br />ployee. An evaluation of the city's present <br />record keeping should be performed on needed <br />changes made to ensure compliance with the <br />FLSA. <br />Recommendations: <br />Staff would recommend the following items be <br />implemented as soon as possible to attempt <br />to comply with the FLSA. 4 <br />