Situation #1

George normally commutes to your home office, but you’ve asked him to work in a branch office in a nearby town for the day to cover for an employee who’s out sick. Is his time commuting to the branch office compensable?

Probably — at least part of it. Since under normal circumstances, George would have had to travel from his home to your main office, only the portion of his time traveling that exceeds the length of time he would spend on his normal commute is compensable.

For instance, if it normally takes him 15 minutes to commute to the office, but it takes him an hour to drive to the branch location, he should be paid for an hour and a half of commute time. (One hour drive time less 15 minutes equals 45 minutes of extra commute each way, or one and a half hours total.)

In another example, if George takes the train to the branch location, he would not be paid for the time spent traveling from his home to the train station and back as that would be considered a substitute for his regular commute, but he should be paid for all the time he spent on the train coming and going.

Situation #2

Oliver is going to be conducting a training session at a client’s office. You ask him to come in to the office first thing to go over his materials one last time and make sure everything is in order. After meeting with you, he drives to the client’s office. At the end of the day, he comes back to the office to review the results of the training session with you before heading home. Is his travel time compensable?

Partially. The time he spends traveling between home and your office is not compensable, as it’s simply his regular commute, but the time he spends traveling from your office to the client’s location should be paid. If instead of returning to the office, he had instead proceeded directly home from the client’s office at the end of the day, only his morning travel to their office would be paid. His evening travel time from their office to his home would have been considered a regular commute and would not need to be paid.

Situation #3

Betty has gone home for the day when an emergency situation arises. Personnel on-site call her, and she tries to talk them through the solution but it quickly becomes apparent she needs to come in. Is the time she spends traveling to the office (and heading home again after the crisis is averted) compensable?

Again, probably. The Fair Labor Standards Act stipulates that if an emergency arises after the end of the employee’s regular workday, and the employee must engage in “substantial” time traveling to deal with the situation, the time is compensable.

Your Next Steps

If you have overtime-eligible employees who regularly engage in travel or commutes other than simply traveling to and from your office from their homes, you should consult with your employment law attorney to make sure you’re paying them properly — and make sure you’re tracking their time. Check out our online time clock, AcroTime, which allows employees to clock in and out where ever they have Internet access (even using a smartphone) and includes a telephony option. It’s ideal for recording time for a mobile or remote workforce.

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has reportedly lately been cracking down on Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations among restaurants in Massachusetts. Now, from Human Resources Journal comes a report of the results:

The division’s Boston District Office has discovered $1,307,808 in back wages that are due to 478 workers in at least 31 restaurants.

Wow… that’s a lot of money. And it doesn’t include “liquidated damages,” which are still being computed, but which could potentially double the amount.

What were the problems uncovered? Here’s a list provided by George A. Rioux, the WHD’s district director in Boston:

• Paying employees flat salaries for all hours worked without overtime pay.
• Failing to combine hours worked at multiple locations for overtime purposes.
• Paying incorrect overtime rates to tipped employees.
• Making illegal deductions from employees’ wages.
• Failing to keep accurate records of employees’ hours.
• Misclassifying restaurant workers as independent contractors.

That last item seemed to be of particular concern. Apparently, it’s a new trend from employers seeking to avoid the overtime, minimum wage and record-keeping requirements of the FLSA. And it ties right in with the big misclassification initiative the DOL launched last year in cooperation with several other agencies and state labor departments.

(In other words, if there are people working at your business that you consider “contractors,” you’d do well to consult with your employment legal advisor to make sure you’re in compliance with all the applicable rules surrounding contract workers. The DOL potentially has you in their cross-hairs, no matter what state or industry you’re in.)

So even if you’re not in the restaurant business in Massachusetts, you could find yourself tripped up by one or more of these issues.

I’ve written before about how a time and attendance system, properly configured and used, can help reduce your risk in the event of a DOL wage and hour audit or lawsuit. Looks like keeping accurate records is becoming even more important nowadays!

If you’re still using handwritten records — or worse yet, no formal records at all — to track employee time, check out our full line of time and attendance recorders. You’re sure to find a solution that will work for your business.

This is made of awesome!

I see all the time lawsuits filed by employees claiming they filed a wage complaint, and their employer retaliated against them. You have to be very careful if you discipline, transfer, demote, lay off or initiate any other “adverse employment action” against an employee who’s filed a complaint under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

It’s not just formal written FLSA complaints you need to be concerned about, either. Recently, in the case of Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., the U.S. Supreme court held that an employee could sue for retaliation even if the original complaint was only made verbally and never put in writing. It also usually doesn’t matter if the complaint was made to the state or federal Department of Labor or if it was only communicated internally to company management.

The Department of Labor has issued a new Fact Sheet on retaliation that seeks to answer some common questions about the topic. Even if your employees haven’t filed any wage and hour complaints, I urge you to review this Fact Sheet. It won’t take much time — it’s short, sweet and to the point. And the information in there is incredibly important to know.

Here are a few ideas to help you protect yourself against charges of retaliation:

• Fully document every adverse employment action, including the reasons why the action was taken. (And — it goes without saying — don’t retaliate. You’re on much firmer ground if the real reason for the adverse action isn’t to take revenge for the employee filing a complaint.)
• Be consistent in your treatment of employees. When one employee commits an infraction and gets away with a slap on the wrist, but another who does a similar thing gets fired, you’re asking for a lawsuit. Especially if the one who gets fired has previously complained about a wage and hour issue.
• If questioned about why a particular employment action was taken, keep your answers short and consistent. When your reasons change from one telling of the story to the next, it starts to look suspiciously like the “reasons” are merely pretext. Depending on who’s asking and under what circumstances, it may be better to let your attorney do the answering for you.
• When in doubt, consult your employment law advisor before you take any action.

Have you ever been tempted to take revenge on an employee who complained? Or have you been the victim of retaliation?

Not too long ago, I came across a statistic that the average company holds on to its time and attendance solution for seven to 10 years. That’s a long time, especially considering all the recent advances in time tracking technology. Try to remember what personal computers were like 10 years ago, compared with their capabilities today. Well, the advances over the past decade in time and attendance tracking are similarly dramatic.

If you’re still using an older time tracking system, your business could be losing out on the advantages offered by a modern timekeeping solution. It may be time to take steps toward an upgrade.

No Time Like The Present

If you’ve had your current solution for more than a few years, December is a terrific time to re-evaluate your system. Take a look at what time and attendance systems can offer these days. Find out if these newer systems offer capabilities you don’t have now, or more secure data entry terminals, or any other enhanced features you could use.

For instance, if you’re concerned about “buddy punching,” you can get a snazzy biometric time and attendance system for less than $600. Use our Savings Calculator to see just how quickly time theft adds up — and find out how much you can save simply by being sure employees are physically present when they clock in or out.

Or let’s say to help morale and promote work/life balance, you now allow your employees the option of telecommuting. You still need to record time for overtime-eligible employees (including salaried non-exempt workers). You may want to consider upgrading to our online time clock, AcroTime. Your employees can safely and securely clock in and out, no matter where they’re working. All they need is Internet access and a browser.

Do your research now. Know what you need, and how it will benefit your business. When January rolls around to begin a new year (and for those of us who operate on a calendar fiscal year, a new budget) you’ll be ready to take advantage of the opportunity.

Best of all, depending on what sort of time tracking you’re using now, an upgraded system could pay for itself in as little as a few months! And that would make a pretty good way to start off the new year, don’t you think?

On Sunday, November 6, at 2:00am, most of us here in the U.S. are supposed to turn our clocks back by one hour. While resetting all our clocks could be an inconvenience at home, it can raise some additional interesting issues at work.

For instance, what about people who work a shift that spans the time change?

Overnight Shifts

The law requires us to pay employees for the number of hours they actually work. This can raise some interesting issues when the clocks change in the spring and fall.

An couple of examples might help:

Spring

The employee arrives for work at midnight and clocks in. At 2:00am, the clocks instantly jump forward to 3:00am. While it appears an hour has passed, no time has actually elapsed. The employee’s shift ends at 8:00am. While a comparison of start and end times would make it appear they’d worked eight hours, in fact, one hour was lost when the clocks were set forward, so the employee really only worked seven hours. You are only obligated to pay them for the seven hours they actually worked.

Fall

The employee arrives for work at midnight and clocks in. At 2:00am, the clocks are set back to show 1:00am. In other words, the clocks count off the hour between 1:00am and 2:00am twice. The employee’s shift ends at 8:00am. While a comparison of start and end times would make it appear they’d worked eight hours, in fact, the clocks undercounted their time by one hour because of being set back. The employee is entitled to pay for nine hours.

Note that if that extra hour puts them over 40 hours in that work week, they’re due overtime at time-and-a-half. (In some states, they’re due overtime for working over eight hours in one day, regardless of how many hours they worked in the week.)

No Time-Shifting

Note that you can’t “average” the time and pay eight hours in both spring and fall. The law says you have to pay hourly employees for the actual hours they work. If you want to be generous, you can pay them for eight hours in the spring, but you’ll still be on the hook for nine hours (and possible overtime) in the fall.

DST Instructions Available

If you need help resetting your Acroprint time clock for Daylight Saving Time, we have print-friendly instructions available free on our website. Click here to find the DST instructions for your clock.

Tired of making Daylight Saving Time adjustments? Take a look at our AcroTime online time clock. Since it’s all online, it automatically adjusts for the spring and fall DST changes without any intervention on your part. Sweet!

If you have any of the following products, you can download a free update from our Support site:

• Attendance Rx or Attendance Rx Network software
• ATRx ProxTime
• ATRx Secure PunchIn
• ATRx Biometric 1000
• timeQplus Biometric (v2)
• timeQplus v3 software
• timeQplus v3 Proximity
• timeQplus v3 Biometric

This new release offers a number of fixes and enhancements. Click on your product name above to jump to the product support page where you can download the update file.

I’m a glass half full kind of guy. Always have been, hopefully always will be. So it bothers me that so many people look at time & attendance systems as a way for “the man” to control his/her subordinates.

Obviously to some extent that can be true, but I think management should try to view it from a different perspective.

If I’m management and I’m pouring over my employee’s time sheets on a weekly basis, I’m admittedly looking for the discrepancies. Who came in late, who left early, who took a ridiculously long lunch? (And if it was a group outing… where was my invite?)

But over the long run I’m paying more attention to the trends. Who are my true workhorses? Who is consistently here on time, all day, every day, ready to rock? I’m scouting out Mr. & Ms. Dependable. Quite simply my time & attendance system not only lets me know who might be in line for some disciplinary action, but even more importantly it helps me decide who deserves to be rewarded.

My best workers are the backbone of my company. And if I don’t take care of them, and acknowledge their efforts, soon enough they’ll find a new job where somebody will. Or even worse they’ll become disillusioned and stay on my payroll, stop putting in the extra effort and start riding the clock.

Employees need to perceive there’s a reward for their hard work, just as much as they believe there’s a consequence for the lack of it. If not the work culture and therefore the company will suffer.

You hear a lot these days about the demise of company loyalty. Employees are supposedly ready to “jump ship” at the drop of a hat. We’re told they’re just biding their time, waiting for a better opportunity to come along.

To help us here at Acroprint keep track of important company events, employee birthdays and employee anniversary dates, we publish a monthly calendar.

Recently, I was looking over our company calendar for the month of July and I noticed something interesting.

I saw there were seven employees with hiring anniversary dates in July. Among those seven, the “newcomer” started with us 11 years ago. At the other end of the spectrum, one in the group has been here for 32 years! All told, these seven employees have worked here for 133 years, or about 19 years each on average.

I think that says a lot about Acroprint as a company. Even in today’s fast-paced, mobile, here-today-gone-tomorrow world, our employees tend to stick around.

I think it has to do with three main factors:

• The company treats us well.
• We’re serious about the quality of our work, but we still manage to have fun doing it.
• We’re working for a company we can believe in, making and selling products we can be proud of.

What do you think? If you’re an employee, would you want to keep working for your current employer for 32 years? If you’re an employer, how many of your employees do you think would stay with you that long? What do you think are the main factors influencing an employee’s decision to stay or leave?

The issue of “donning and doffing” has been in the news again lately, thanks to the case of Perez v. Moutainaire Farms, Inc. right here in North Carolina.

Donning and doffing refers to the action of putting on or taking off protective gear, uniforms, etc. that are required for the job and kept at the workplace. Employees have to change into or out of the special gear after they arrive at your site, but before they can actually start work. It’s a common practice at locations such as nuclear power plants, steel refineries or poultry / meat processing facilities.

The Question Is…

…Should you have to pay employees for time they spend getting ready for work? It turns out that depends on what they’re doing and where you’re located. Here’s a sampling of rulings from various Federal Appeals Courts up and down the east coast:

• In the case of Gormon v. Consolidated Edison Corp., the Second Circuit (CT, NY, VT) ruled nuclear power plant employees were not entitled to pay for donning and doffing their protective gear and going through security because the activities were “relatively effortless.”
• On the other hand, in Tyson Foods Inc. v. De Ascencio, the Third Circuit (DE, NJ, PA) decided poultry plant employees should be paid for time spend donning and doffing protective gear.
• Putting a slight twist on the situation, in Perez v. Mountaire Farms, Inc., the Fourth Circuit (MD, NC, SC, VA, WV) said time spent donning and doffing protective gear at the beginning and end of the workday is compensable time… but time spent donning and doffing the same gear when employees take meal breaks is not.
• However, in Anderson v. Cagle’s Inc., the Eleventh Circuit (AL, FL, GA) ruled union poultry plant employees were not entitled to pay for time spent donning and doffing because of provisions in their collective bargaining agreement.

Big Potential Liability, But How Much?

Of particular note, in Perez v. Moutainaire Farms, Inc., the company’s expert calculated the time spend donning and doffing at around 10 minutes per day. Meanwhile, the plaintiff employees said the time was closer to 21 minutes per day. (Bit of a difference there!)

Since there were no actual time records to rely on, the judge split the difference and estimated the time at 17 minutes per day. Two years equals about 500 workdays. At 17 minutes per day, that works out to around 142 hours — just under 18 days — of unpaid time per employee. When you consider that at least some of this time will likely have to be paid at time and a half overtime, you can get an idea of the potential exposure you might face in a similar situation.

The Bottom Line

If a donning and doffing issue might apply to you:

1. Consult with your employment law attorney to make sure your pay practices are in compliance with the latest rulings in your jurisdiction. Be sure to factor in the amount of time and effort it takes for employees to put on or take off the gear — the harder it is or the longer it takes, the more likely it is the time should be paid.
2. Even if you and your lawyer decide you aren’t required (at least for now) to pay employees for donning and doffing time, track that time anyway. You never know when a new court case might change the criteria, or when you might find yourself in court having to justify your decision. You want to make sure any decisions or calculations the court might make are based on actual time records, not somebody’s “best guess.”

If you aren’t happy with your current time clock, or you don’t have a time and attendance solution in place, look to Acroprint for a complete line of traditional punch clocks, time tracking software and even an online time clock that lets you track employee time over the web.