Electronic Overtime Issues

In a recent article from the Denver Post.com, the issue of overtime due to iPhones and BlackBerrys is addressed and the lines between personal and professional are blurred a bit more. Sure, your employees have constant access to their work, but since business and pleasure are so closely linked by technology, where does overtime begin for employers?

With the job market flimsy and always being able to do work via smartphones, employees feel like they should be working all the time. With an employee constantly having access to their work breeds an issue: When are you required to pay them overtime? Overtime is abused by organizations frequently and employees may not even be aware  they qualify for overtime.  However, lack of attention to this can result in lawsuits. The issue has been dubbed “BlackBerry overtime” of “electronic overtime.” What can you do about this?

Long-Daniels advises companies not to allow hourly employees and others who qualify for overtime to use BlackBerrys or remote access to their work computers, unless they’re told to record time when using the devices and the company has a system in place to record the hours.

There are numerous organizations that have suffered lawsuits due to employee overtime via technology, and some of those cases were generated by employees who did not realize they were eligible for overtime. Be sure your employees clearly understand your organization’s overtime policies.  What can you do to improve your organization’s overtime policies? What do you have under your belt to address technology overtime issues? To read more about the issues pertaining to modern day overtime issues, click here to read the full article.

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