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Legally: To Pay or Not to Pay
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Legally: To Pay or Not to Pay
Discuss employment-law issues such as family leave, overtime, disabilities law, harassment, immigration and termination.
Legally, are we required to pay employees for work they have done outside of their scheduled hours of work, even though they did not have management approval to work outside of their scheduled work ho
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Legally: To Pay or Not to Pay

posted at 8/26/2010 10:31 AM EDT
Posts: 1
First: 8/26/2010
Last: 8/26/2010
Legally, are we required to pay employees for work they have done outside of their scheduled hours of work, even though they did not have management approval to work outside of their scheduled work hours?

Our Company has a web-based data management system which contains our company's and our clients' confidential data. Our employee manual states that employees may not access this system from home or remote locations without Management approval. The manual also states that employees will work there scheduled shift and may not work overtime unless pre-approved by Management. It has recently come to HR's attention that a number of non-exempt employees have been logging on to this system after scheduled work hours from their home computer. They are not, however logging in to the Time and Attendance system to time stamp for this work.
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Legally: To Pay or Not to Pay

posted at 8/26/2010 11:05 AM EDT
Posts: 2442
First: 2/12/2000
Last: 9/14/2011
IMHO you are liable for any and all work done by your non exempts while on that system. My recommendation is that you pay them what they are owed and institute some controls with penalties when they work without permission.

You can even have financial penalties wherein they agree to allow you deduct money from their pay as a penalty as long as you have their agreement in writing. Use legal counsel if you choose to do this.

Otherwise have employee meetings and train supervisors on the importance of controlling all hours and pay.
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Legally: To Pay or Not to Pay

posted at 8/26/2010 1:59 PM EDT
Posts: 1103
First: 3/16/2007
Last: 8/19/2011
simple answer...yes, no exceptions. If it is OT then you pay the OT rate.

You can also discipline them for not following policy or instructions - but you must pay them.
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Legally: To Pay or Not to Pay

posted at 8/27/2010 8:03 AM EDT
Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006
Last: 9/14/2011
Agree you have to pay. And you need to look into your system processes that allow them to login from outside of work time without authorization.

and they are breaking two policies:
(1) working unauthorized time AND
(2) logging into the system from home without approval

Are you sure they are not using the system for unintended purposes? Do you often allow work from home? If not, I would lock down the system more than you are.

I would give each of them a final warning.
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Legally: To Pay or Not to Pay

posted at 8/27/2010 11:09 AM EDT
Posts: 544
First: 9/27/2004
Last: 9/13/2011
It seems like a lot of these posts are about failures to clearly communicate and/or enforce policies.
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Legally: To Pay or Not to Pay

posted at 8/27/2010 12:02 PM EDT
Posts: 1103
First: 3/16/2007
Last: 8/19/2011
deltac I think that sums up most things in life.
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Legally: To Pay or Not to Pay

posted at 8/27/2010 12:46 PM EDT
Posts: 544
First: 9/27/2004
Last: 9/13/2011
You're so right about that. It seems like people are looking at the wrong end of the horse when it comes to solving problems.
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