2020
- Holidays...To Pay or Not to Pay, What is Required
- EEOC Update on COVID-19
- Protection of Employee Health Information
- Civil Rights Win for LGBTQ Employees
- OSHA Recordkeeping Requirements During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- The Line Between At-Will Termination and Wrongful Termination
- Regulating Firearms in the Workplace
- Social Media Use in Hiring
2019
2018
- What Not to Wear
- Vicarious Liability for Unlawful Harrassment
- Employee Surveillance & Union Formation
- A Lesson in Retaliation
- Employers May Sometimes Judge a Book By Its Cover
- Mind Your P’s and Q’s . . . and BFOQs
- Severance Agreements
- U.S. Department of Labor "Paid" Program
- Revisiting Records Retention
- Calculating the Regular Rate
- Independent Contractor or Employee?
2017
- Sexual Orientation Discrimination
- DRI Membership: It’s Personal
- Is Extended Leave a Reasonable Accommodation?
- Parental Leave
- Pay Disparity
- Religious accomodation in the workplace
- Equal pay and prior salary information
- I quit! How to avoid constructive discharge
- You Can't Shred Email
- Navigating Unemployment Claims
- Considering Criminal History in Pre-Employment Decisions
- Defamation Claims from Former Employees
- Mixed Motive Causation
2016
- Requesting Accomodation: Kowitz v. Trinity Health
- Antitrust Law in Human Resources
- An Evolving Standard: Joint-Employment
- What Does At-Will Employment Mean for Employers?
- Let's Talk About Wages
- THE FLSA: CHANGES ARE COMING
- Follow Up: Obesity and the ADA
- The Importance of Social Media Policies
- Is Obesity a Qualifying Disability under the ADA?
- Retaliation on the Rise: The EEOC Responds
- What Motivates You?
2015
- "But I thought ...
- Who’s expecting? And what is he expecting?
- Are You Still Doing Annual Performance Reviews?
- Who is Your Employee?
- The unpaid intern trap Part II
- “We’ve been the victim of a cyber-attack”
- So, a Hasidic Jew, a nun in a habit and a woman wearing a headscarf walk into your office?
- The unpaid intern trap
- Pregnancy in the workplace
- Let's talk about honesty.
- "Did You Know" Series - Part I
- Conducting an Internal Investigation
- What HR can look forward to in 2015!
2014
- The chokehold of workplace technology
- Does your company have trade secrets?
- North Dakota Construction Law Compendium for 2014
- Does the North Dakota baby boom affect you?
- Ban the Box? Why?
- The end of the world as we know it
- Everybody has an opinion
- Changes, Changes, Changes!
- Nick Grant presents at North Dakota Safety Council's 41st Annual Safety and Health Conference
- Email impairment: A potentially harmful condition
- Are Employers Required to Give Stressed-Out Employees Time Off?
2013
- Can you obtain a credit report when investigating employee wrongdoing?
- Can’t we just sidestep the ACA?
- Should Your Employees Telecommute? Part III
- Should Your Employees Telecommute? Part II
- Should Your Employees Telecommute?
- Proper Investigation of Employee Misconduct
- Battles in the Wellness War
- Rules are rules! Aren’t they?
- What's going on in Bismarck
- A glimpse ahead
2012
- Obesity as a disability under the ADA – reweighing the issue
- What’s next for your business under the Affordable Care Act?
- Criminal Background Checks
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 5 of 5]
- Congress Says Yes To North Slope Energy Jobs Bill
- Test Your Knowledge of Social Media Policies and Employee Discipline
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 4 of 5]
- What Every Employer Needs to Know About the NLRA
- Will the 2012 Elections Make A Difference
2011
- Where There's Smoke...
- Dress Code Etiquette: Is Casual Friday Becoming Freaky Friday
- The Next Disaster May Be Yours
- Hostile Work Environment Claims
- North Dakota Employment Law Links
- There's An App For That
- Am I a “Business Associate”? Why Should I Care?
- Do You Recognize a Cat's Paw When You See One?
- Cell Phones Can Cost a Lot, Part II
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 3 of 5]
- Cell Phones Can Cost a Lot, Part I
- The Economy - What HR Professionals Need To Know
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 2 of 5]
- Three New Challenges For HR Professionals
2010
Apr 05, 2011
America seems addicted to addiction. Popular television shows serving the addiction market include Intervention, Celebrity Rehab, Hoarding: Buried Alive and the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Commentators postulate that these thrive because, however brutish and short our own lives might be, each new episode is cause for celebration. “Thank God I’m not like that.”
But wait! Does your office follow you to your car, your home, your gym, on your vacation? Do you secretly hope that the shallow end of the pool has a desk with internet connectivity? If you answered yes to any of these, you need to confront your problem.
Americans are hauling their electronic drug of choice in their pockets and shoulder bags. In 2006, employees checked work email every eight minutes while “off-work.” Today employees, on average, loose one hour of leisure each day to the electronic ball and chain. The symptoms of addiction to electronic connectivity are similar to those of alcoholism. In 2008, The Economist reported that 35% of BlackBerry users would choose the pda over their spouse.
IT’S TIME FOR AN INTERVENTION!
Last month I wrote of possible consequences to your company of an automobile accident caused by a data-distracted employee. Your company has an equally serious exposure to claims for overtime compensation due to devices that connect the employee to the workplace anywhere, anytime. Consider the case of Jeffrey Allen:
Allen is a police officer in Chicago. He and other coworkers received pdas from the City. Allen claims that he uses his pda “routinely and regularly” while off duty. He alleges that he receives numerous telephone calls, e-mails, voice mails, text messages and work orders on his pda while off the clock. He responds to these communications. The City, he claims, knows what he is doing, but does not pay him for the time he spends responding.
Late last year, Allen became the class-action plaintiff in litigation against the City of Chicago claiming three years of past overtime compensation, plus interest, as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Because the FLSA permits broader recovery than most employers are accustomed to encountering, the potential damages do not stop there. Allen also asks that the City of Chicago pay his attorney’s fees and costs, and that the court award the class double back pay as punitive damages. On March 15, 2011, a United States District Court denied the City’s motion to dismiss, allowing the case to proceed.
The FLSA was the product of the Great Depression. Designed to protect employees from predatory bosses, it defines “work” in the broadest sense, including mental effort on behalf of an employer. Over-simplified, the FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt employees 1.5 times the employee’s regular hourly rate for work in excess of 40 hours per week. Again simplified, the FLSA severely restricts private employers’ efforts to avoid overtime compensation by using flextime schemes, employee waivers or consent, or by broadly classifying employees as exempt.
The FLSA’s extensive rule making and litigation history create a trap for the unwary. One FLSA expert likens FLSA to instant replay in a football game. After close analysis of the totality of the play, seldom is there not some infraction of some rule. Upon scrutiny, almost no employer follows the FLSA completely. The result has been the rise of a very successful litigation cottage industry. School Districts and other public employers seem to be the first targets. Private employers are sure to follow.
WHAT CAN HR DO?
• Make sure that all of your employees are properly classified. Paying a salary is not determinative of the employee’s status. Whether an individual employee is exempt may require sophisticated analysis. Advice of employment counsel here will save trouble later.
• A prima facie claim for unpaid overtime switches the burden to the employer to produce “adequate records” showing that it tracks and pays all working hours appropriately. Review your record-keeping practices and expand them to include reporting of after-hours work by non-exempt employees. Some pda records are easily available. Others are not. Consider how best to track these.
• Re-write any policy that requires response by a non-exempt employee to a work-related call, email or text during non-working hours. A blanket prohibition will not work because the FLSA does not credit policies absolving the employer merely due to employee non-compliance. However, a good data device use policy will start to set the tone within your organization.
• Give both supervisors and employees appropriate training in the policy mentioned above. Employers need to emphasize that they do not expect employees to work all the time – and mean it. Employees need to learn the world will not end if an electronic inquiry waits until work-time.
• Consider limiting employer-supplied devices to truly exempt employees.
• Consider prohibiting the practice of linking an employee-owned device to your workplace server, telephone system or other electronic access points.
Reprinted with permission from an article submitted for publication in the April 2011 Southwest Area Human Resource Association newsletter.
Cell Phones Can Cost a Lot, Part II
By: Paul EbeltoftAmerica seems addicted to addiction. Popular television shows serving the addiction market include Intervention, Celebrity Rehab, Hoarding: Buried Alive and the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Commentators postulate that these thrive because, however brutish and short our own lives might be, each new episode is cause for celebration. “Thank God I’m not like that.”
But wait! Does your office follow you to your car, your home, your gym, on your vacation? Do you secretly hope that the shallow end of the pool has a desk with internet connectivity? If you answered yes to any of these, you need to confront your problem.
Americans are hauling their electronic drug of choice in their pockets and shoulder bags. In 2006, employees checked work email every eight minutes while “off-work.” Today employees, on average, loose one hour of leisure each day to the electronic ball and chain. The symptoms of addiction to electronic connectivity are similar to those of alcoholism. In 2008, The Economist reported that 35% of BlackBerry users would choose the pda over their spouse.
IT’S TIME FOR AN INTERVENTION!
Last month I wrote of possible consequences to your company of an automobile accident caused by a data-distracted employee. Your company has an equally serious exposure to claims for overtime compensation due to devices that connect the employee to the workplace anywhere, anytime. Consider the case of Jeffrey Allen:
Allen is a police officer in Chicago. He and other coworkers received pdas from the City. Allen claims that he uses his pda “routinely and regularly” while off duty. He alleges that he receives numerous telephone calls, e-mails, voice mails, text messages and work orders on his pda while off the clock. He responds to these communications. The City, he claims, knows what he is doing, but does not pay him for the time he spends responding.
Late last year, Allen became the class-action plaintiff in litigation against the City of Chicago claiming three years of past overtime compensation, plus interest, as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Because the FLSA permits broader recovery than most employers are accustomed to encountering, the potential damages do not stop there. Allen also asks that the City of Chicago pay his attorney’s fees and costs, and that the court award the class double back pay as punitive damages. On March 15, 2011, a United States District Court denied the City’s motion to dismiss, allowing the case to proceed.
The FLSA was the product of the Great Depression. Designed to protect employees from predatory bosses, it defines “work” in the broadest sense, including mental effort on behalf of an employer. Over-simplified, the FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt employees 1.5 times the employee’s regular hourly rate for work in excess of 40 hours per week. Again simplified, the FLSA severely restricts private employers’ efforts to avoid overtime compensation by using flextime schemes, employee waivers or consent, or by broadly classifying employees as exempt.
The FLSA’s extensive rule making and litigation history create a trap for the unwary. One FLSA expert likens FLSA to instant replay in a football game. After close analysis of the totality of the play, seldom is there not some infraction of some rule. Upon scrutiny, almost no employer follows the FLSA completely. The result has been the rise of a very successful litigation cottage industry. School Districts and other public employers seem to be the first targets. Private employers are sure to follow.
WHAT CAN HR DO?
• Make sure that all of your employees are properly classified. Paying a salary is not determinative of the employee’s status. Whether an individual employee is exempt may require sophisticated analysis. Advice of employment counsel here will save trouble later.
• A prima facie claim for unpaid overtime switches the burden to the employer to produce “adequate records” showing that it tracks and pays all working hours appropriately. Review your record-keeping practices and expand them to include reporting of after-hours work by non-exempt employees. Some pda records are easily available. Others are not. Consider how best to track these.
• Re-write any policy that requires response by a non-exempt employee to a work-related call, email or text during non-working hours. A blanket prohibition will not work because the FLSA does not credit policies absolving the employer merely due to employee non-compliance. However, a good data device use policy will start to set the tone within your organization.
• Give both supervisors and employees appropriate training in the policy mentioned above. Employers need to emphasize that they do not expect employees to work all the time – and mean it. Employees need to learn the world will not end if an electronic inquiry waits until work-time.
• Consider limiting employer-supplied devices to truly exempt employees.
• Consider prohibiting the practice of linking an employee-owned device to your workplace server, telephone system or other electronic access points.
Reprinted with permission from an article submitted for publication in the April 2011 Southwest Area Human Resource Association newsletter.