|
<
Library - Employment Law
Wage Claims,
Overtime & Other Employee Compensation
WORK-RELATED ACTIVITIES THAT
EMPLOYEES SHOULD BE PAID FOR
There are work-related tasks that employees do for the employer’s
benefit but for which they are not paid. If these activities fall
within “work time” employees must be paid for them. “Work time” is
essentially the time an employee spends
on activities that are controlled by and for the benefit of the
employer. This includes all the time that the employee is
required to be present at the workplace. The following
activities may be compensable:
1)
Changing Uniforms or Washing up at Work
Time spent changing clothes or washing on the employer’s
premises is compensable if it is compelled by the necessities of
the employer’s business. This means that the changing or
washing is an “integral and indispensable part” of the employee’s
principal activities or they are required by law or the employer’s
rules. Other such integral and indispensable activities include
preparing or cleaning tools or equipment or any preliminary or
postliminary activity necessary to perform the work.
2)
Training Programs, Lectures and Meetings
Time spent by employees attending training programs, lectures,
and meetings are counted as hours worked if employee attendance
is mandatory and all of the following criteria are met:
1)
Attendance is during regular working hours.
2) Attendance is not voluntary. If the employee is led to
believe that the employee’s present working conditions or the
continuation of employment would be adversely affected by
nonattendance, the employee’s resulting attendance is not voluntary.
3) The course, lecture, or meeting is directly related to the
employee’s job. Training is directly related to an employee’s job if
it is designed to make the employee handle the job more effectively
as distinguished from training for another job or a new or
additional skill.
4) The employee performs productive work during such
attendance.
3) Intern
Programs
Intern training, which is an essential part of an established
course of an accredited school or of an institution approved by a
public agency to provide training for licensure or to qualify for a
skilled vocation or profession, is historically exempt from wage and
hour laws. However, if any of the following apply, the intern
must be compensated:
1) The
intern program is for the benefit of one specific employer,
2) A regular employee has been displaced by the trainee,
3) The training is not supervised by the school or
disinterested agency.
If an
employer were to establish a program of instruction for the benefit
of his employees which corresponds to courses offered by
independent, bona fide institutions of learning, and makes employee
attendance to such courses mandatory, such hours would be hours
worked and should be compensable.
4) Try-out
Time
An
employer may ask a prospective employee to exhibit skills such as
typing, shorthand, or operation of machinery, before employment.
Such “try out time” is compensable if all of the following
apply:
1) This
time is, in fact, training as opposed to simply testing skills;
2) There is productivity derived from the work performed by
the prospective employee; and
3) The try-out period is not reasonable under the
circumstances.
Each case
must be reviewed on its facts. For instance, the period of time to
test the skills of a sewing machine operator will be much less than
that needed to test the skills of a computer programmer. While no
particular time frame can be given, the rate of pay for the
occupation can usually be used as a guide to determine the amount of
time necessary for “try out.”
5) Reporting Time Pay
If an
employee is required to report for work and does report, but is not
put to work or is furnished less than half the employee’s usual or
scheduled day’s work, the employee shall be paid half of his or her
regularly scheduled work, but in no event less than two hours nor
more than four hours at the employee’s regular rate of pay.
©
Law Offices C. Joe Sayas, Jr.
|
