By James M. Leva, JD, Day Pitney LLP
A New Jersey federal court recently allowed an employee’s claim for unpaid wages to proceed despite the employer’s mandatory time-reporting policies because the employee alleged that her supervisor instructed her to underreport her hours.
 |
Jeanne Marie Brunozzi was an hourly retail representative for Crossmark, a marketing and merchandising service provider. From 1999 to March 2009, Brunozzi worked for Crossmark full-time. After March 2009, she continued her employment with the company part-time. As a part-time employee, she worked 5 to 20 hours per week from 2012 to 2014, and 3 to 5 hours per week from 2014 to the time of her lawsuit.
Brunozzi began her workday by performing various administrative tasks that required her to connect to Crossmark’s website to check e-mails and receive assignments. She also spent time loading her car with the materials she needed to perform her daily duties. Crossmark has a written policy requiring all employees to record their working time in its SalesTrak system.
Brunozzi admitted that she was paid for all of the time she actually entered into the SalesTrak system, but she claimed that her supervisor, Donna Burke, instructed her on several occasions not to enter more than 40 hours a week and reprimanded her when she did.