Overtime Wage Payments and Mobile Devices

Kathryn Carlson

As the City of Chicago recently learned, providing mobile devices to nonexempt employees without also establishing clear guidelines and policies for usage can lead to costly lawsuits. For example, a police sergeant (who was paid on an hourly basis) used his department-issued Blackberry for work-related communications after he had clocked out. Now he is seeking overtime compensation as part of a class action lawsuit.

While Blackberry phones, iPhones, and other mobile devices may improve productivity, a number of legal issues are associated with their usage in the workplace, including overtime payment.

To avoid legal trouble, employers should take the following steps:

• Establish a clear policy on the usage of any company-issued mobile device
• Provide training on appropriate usage and have each employee sign off on the usage policy
• Monitor “off the clock usage” by nonexempt employees
• Pay employees for any owed overtime due to usage of a mobile device
• Discipline those employees who do not follow policy for approved overtime, even if the overtime was for “checking my email”

Source NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129184907&ft=1&f=1006