On January 25, 2012, Gardere’s Employment Attorneys hosted a roundtable for its Senior HR Executive and In-House Counsel clients. The discussion centered around their most significant employment challenges in 2012. Among the topics discussed were dealing with off the clock work which continues to be an area of significant risk to many employers. Gardere attorneys and the participants offered several recommendations for dealing with off the clock work issues.
1. Require employees to obtain supervisor approval to work overtime. Enforce that policy against both employees and supervisors who break the policy.
2. Audit your payroll process and interview employees to ensure that employees are not working off the clock. Legal counsel should be in charge of this audit (even if the audit is performed by a non-attorney) to protect the privilege.
3. Implement and retain information from other tracking measures, including electronic entry cards, computer log in/out data, etc.
4. Institute progressive discipline against employees and supervisors who violate off the clock work policies.
5. Have employees use a click through acknowledgement each time they log in that recognizes and affirms their obligations to accurately record and report hours worked.
6. Limit PDA and remote access to email and company network to exempt employees or implement a tool for employees to report hours worked off site.
