HR Tips: What Happens When New Technology Meets Old School Regulations?

With modern technology (e-mail, cell phones, laptops) we have changed the way we do business. We can get more work done, anytime, anywhere. However, when Managers encourage or require nonexempt (hourly) employees to work off the clock, it can be a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Requiring your employees to answer calls or check emails “off the clock” can lead to wage and hour violations and costly court battles for unpaid wages. The law does say “de minimis” work (defined as work taking only a “a few seconds or minutes”) can be unpaid, however the definition of “de minimis” is murky and typically is considered time earned even if it is as little as ten minutes.

What can you do? Don’t give cell phones to non-exempts and don’t require email correspondence during their non-working hours unless you have a clear and consistent policy and procedure in place to make sure they are paid for their time.

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For instance, I believe the author intended to say “ employees’ ” in the following sentence:
“Here are some things the courts look at when deciding if employees on-call need to be paid:”

For me, I find HR Morning.com useful and interesting, but I would never rely on it as my authoritative resource for issues such as this.

For an employee not on call that shift but who is called out by special request, is the compensatory time from the call to the end of the work? If the job takes less than four hours, should the company pay the four hour minimum to the employee called out when not on-call status? Some states may consider this time and a half.

I’m wondering if signed contracts may be beneficial to companies with this issue to avoid the confusion. It would make more sense for a company to have it all lined out and agreed upon at the time of employment.

As for the grammar and spelling issues, please remember that no matter what your opinion may be, it is still considered improper to use all caps when posting online as it indicates shouting; that is purposely unprofessional whereas a typo is careless yet accidental.

Should you be in one of those states where this is not concisely covered without ambiguity within labor regulations, (our) state has taken the stand in the past that a signed acknowledgement of adhering to company policy as set forth in the Employee Handbook is a condition of employment. Employees are expected to adhere to those conditions of employment or could be considered to be acting insubordinately.

On another note, while this may not be a grammatical critique forum, I do agree that in this day of technology, blatant spelling errors and other misspellings which cause context-altering errors bring me to consider the validity of any information I happen to be reading. Yes, we can be passionately tapping out our responses as readers, but the reputation of the article producer, author and integrity of the information presented are significantly compromised by blatant and frequent errors.

Also, has anyone had a problem at their workplace when employees clock in well before their actual starting time and the consequences that it may cause if audited by either state or federal Dept. of Labor agencies? I’d like to hear of the consequesnces of allowing this to happen, as it is a definite no-no.