By Stephen Bruce, PhD, PHR Just My E-pinion
Innes, who will speaking on wage/hour challenges at the upcoming National Employment Law Update in Las Vegas, is a shareholder with the Simpson, Garrity, Innes, and Jacuzzi law firm in South San Francisco, California.
Many employers are lax or casual about their recording and timekeeping, and either don't have much of a system for keeping records or don't make careful use of the system they do have, says Innes.
That's going to cause expensive problems down the road, she says. It's the employer's burden to keep the records. If there are no records or the records aren't clear, then the court is going presume that the employee's recollections are correct.
Even if that "recollection" is way off, it's very hard to rebut without records, Innes says.
Recording hours worked isn't hard, but more and more this is a "huge problem" in class litigation, she says. One of the most common failures is not paying for preliminary and postliminary activities. If you're requiring people to come in early or stay late for cleaning, prepping machines, meetings, or other necessary activities, and you're not paying them for that time, that's likely a problem.
There's a trend toward suits focused on technical issues of wage and hour, says Innes. For example, take rounding. You can round, but you have to have a clear policy, and you have to be consistent, and you have to make sure you round fairly—you can't always round in favor of the employer, Innes says.
One of the most common problems is failing to include all applicable income in the "regular rate" before calculating overtime amounts. You have to include non-discretionary bonuses, commissions, and other payments to arrive at the regular rate on which you calculate the overtime bonus, says Innes.
These and a host of other wage/hour challenges will be the focus of Innes's presentation at the upcoming National Employment Law Update conference to be held at the famous Venetian in Las Vegas from Oct. 27-29.
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In addition to Innes's presentation, you'll benefit from many other presentations of practical solutions from experts on the topics that are important to you. Plus, you'll have the opportunity to network with your peers, obtain valuable HRCI recertification credit, and enjoy all that Vegas has to offer from your convenient home base at the Venetian.
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Sampling of presentation topics:
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