By partners, I assume you mean the bosses. Bosses can do whatever they want. Hypocritical, no, but neither is it fair. But since their the bosses they don't have to be fair in this regard.
Ok, I'm with you on this one. As a salaried worker, if the day's work done in an hour you should be able to leave in an hour without penalty.
The codification may simply be for legal reasons.
If you and your fellow employees haven't done anything "wrong," then I can understand that feeling. Since you do feel so strongly about it, you might want to ask the reasons for the changes. Don't go in saying that you don't like them, but that you just want information about why they were made. The reasons may have nothing directly to do with the employees.
I play air tambourine. Competitively.