Hourly Employees & Blackberry w/ email capabilities
HRFLDist
52 Posts
Does anyone have a policy regarding hourly employeees and Blackberrys (including access to work email after hours)? We are changing cell phone carriers and will be giving our hourly inside sales team a Blackberry phone with access to company email. I need the policy to incorporate how they are to report the hours worked when they are off the clock. Thanks!
Comments
I would also try to avoid NX having a blackberry/iphone. Here are some related links for you to review:
http://www.schwarzberglaw.com/lawalerts/05-01-08.asp
I also agree that this is not a good idea. If you do this, is someone going to monitor these accounts to see when the people are sending emails, logging into the network, etc. and pay them for all the time they spent doing this? The ownership is on the company to make sure you are paying people for all time worked. Even if you have a policy, it still needs to be monitored.
[quote user="IT HR"]I also agree that this is not a good idea. If you do this, is someone going to monitor these accounts to see when the people are sending emails, logging into the network, etc. and pay them for all the time they spent doing this? The ownership is on the company to make sure you are paying people for all time worked. Even if you have a policy, it still needs to be monitored.[/quote]
Bingo. It's the Company's responsibility to ensure employee work time is measured and compensated. An employer "shall not suffer" an employee to work without payment. So, when an hourly employee works off the clock, they're not doing you a favor.
Depending on what they're making, it might make more sense to change their duties and reclassify them as exempt. Work with counsel if you aren't absolutely certain about exempt/non-exempt classification.