Overtime
human resource13
15 Posts
We have a hourly employee who works daily more than the required 8 hours. We have told this person that they must only work the 8 hours daily and the need to leave at 5. This employee keeps working past the 8 hours. Short of escorting her out each evening at 5 what are our options?
Comments
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman
FLSA is quite clear that it is up to management to implement effective measures if it does not want an employee to work overtime at all and must take every effort to enforce that. Merely publishing a rule and disciplining an employee don't get the emplyer off the hook of paying for it when it is worked.
From FLSA regulations at 29CFR785.11, .12, and .13:
"Work not requested but suffered or permitted is work time. For example, an employee may voluntarily continue to work at the end of the shift. He may be a pieceworker, he may desire to finish an assigned task or he may wish to correct errors, paste work tickets, prepare time reports or other records. The reason is immaterial. The employer knows or has reason to believe that he is continuing to work and the time is working time.
"The rule is also applicable to work performed away from the premises or the job site, or even at home. If the employer knows or has reason to believe that the work is being performed, he must count the time as hours worked.
"In all such cases it is the duty of the management to exercise its control and see that the work is not performed if it does not want it to be performed. It cannot sit back and accept the benefits without compensating for them. The mere promulgation of a rule against such work is not enough. Management has the power to enforce the rule and must make every effort to do so."