Contact Us
Categories
- remote work
- Federal Trade Commission
- LGBTQ
- Minors
- United States Department of Justice ("DOJ")
- work from home
- Arbitration
- Workplace health
- Trade Secrets
- Corporate
- Center for Disease Control
- Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA")
- FFCRA
- Opioid Epidemic
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”)
- COVID-19
- Families First Coronavirus Response Act
- H.R.6201
- Health Care Law
- IRS
- Paid Sick Leave
- Temporary Leave
- Treasury
- Coronavirus
- Worker Misclassification
- Labor Law
- Overtime
- Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Commission
- Sexual Harassment
- FMLA Retaliation
- overtime rule
- Employer Wellness Programs
- Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act ("GINA")
- Kentucky minimum wage
- Minimum wage
- Wage and Hour
- Employee Benefits
- Employment Discrimination Laws
- Employment Non-Discrimination Act ("ENDA")
- ERISA
- Human Resource Department
- Independent Contractors
- OSHA
- Paid Time Off ("PTO")
- Sick Employees
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
- Kentucky Civil Rights Act (“KCRA”)
- Overtime Pay
- Social Media
- Social Media Policies
- U.S. Department of Labor
- Union
- ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (“ADAAA”)
- Adverse Employment Action
- Americans with Disabilities Act
- Bring Your Own Device
- BYOD
- Civil Rights
- Compliance
- copyright
- Department of Labor ("DOL")
- EEOC
- Employee Handbook
- Employee Misconduct
- Employment Law
- Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”)
- Intellectual Property
- National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
- National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
- Pregnancy Discrimination Act
- Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”)
- Uncategorized
- Volunteer
- Work for Hire
- Young v. UPS
- Amazon
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947
- Security Checks
- Security Screening
- U.S. Supreme Court
- Federal contractors
- Kentucky Labor Cabinet’s Occupational Safety and Health Program (KOSH)
- Micro-unit
- Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center of Mobile
- Cloud
- Creech v. Brown
- EEOC v. Hill Country Farms
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Kaplan Higher Education Corp.
- Lane v. Franks
- Non-exempt employees
- Northwestern
- Crystalline Silica
- Drug-Free Workplaces
- Illness and Injury Reports
- Kentucky Department of Workers’ Claims
- Kentucky Wage and Hour Act
- Mine Safety and Health Administration ("MSHA")
- Permissible Exposure Level ("PEL")
- Senate Bill 157
- Shazor v. Prof’l Transit Mgmt.
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- Whistleblower
- WorkSmart Kentucky
- "Ban-the-box"
- 2013)
- At-will employment
- Berrier v. Bizer
- Bullying
- Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
- Chenzira v. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
- Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
- Companionship services
- Compensatory time off
- Conestoga Woods Specialties v. Sebelius
- Consumer Credit Protection Act (“CCPA”)
- Davis-Bacon and Related Acts
- Earnings
- EEOC v. Fabricut
- EEOC v. The Founders Pavilion
- Ehling v. Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp.
- Federal Stored Communications Act (“SCA”)
- Giant Food LLC
- Government employees
- Government shutdown
- Health-Contingent Wellness Programs
- HIPAA
- Home Health Care Workers
- Job applications
- Jury duty
- KYSHRM 2013
- Mandatory vaccination policies
- Maternity Leave
- McNamara O’Hara Service Contract Act
- Medical Exams
- NFL Bullying Scandal
- Participatory Wellness Programs
- Payroll
- Private employers
- Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores
- SHRM
- Small Business Administration (SBA)
- Violence
- Wage garnishment
- COBRA
- Defamation
- Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”)
- Employee Hazards
- Employee of the Month Programs
- Employee Training
- Employer Group Health Plans
- Employment Practices Liability Insurance
- Endorsements
- Federal Workplace Agencies
- Freedom of Speech
- Gatto v. United Airlines and allied Aviation Services
- Litigation
- Madry v. Gibraltar National Corporation
- Megivern v. Glacier Hills Incorporated
- Motivating Factor
- Obesity
- Online Account Protection
- Online Defamation
- Pennington v. Wagner’s Pharmacy
- Pension Plans
- Reference checks
- Sequester
- Social Media Ownership
- Supervisor
- Tangible employment actions
- Title VII retaliation cases
- Troyer v. T.John.E Productions
- Unfair Labor Practice
- United States v. Windsor
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar
- Vance v. Ball State University
- Contraceptive Mandate
- Employee Arrests
- Employee Forms
- Employee photographs
- Employer Mandate
- FICA
- Form I-9
- House Labor and Industry Committee
- Kentucky’s Whistleblower Act
- KRS 391.170
- Municipal Liability
- Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
- Play or Pay
- posting requirements
- Public Sector Liability
- Record Retention
- Religious Employer
- Right to Work Bill
- severance pay
- Supplemental Unemployment Compensation Benefits
- tax refund
- Telecommuting
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- United States v. Quality Stores
- White v. Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp.
- Wilson v. City of Central City
- Crisis Management
- Federal Department of Labor
- Job Description
- Job Requirement
- Kentucky Labor Cabinet
- Labor and Pensions ("HELP")
- PhoneDog v. Kravitz
- Social Networking Online Protection Act (SNOP)
- social privacy laws
- Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP)
- Workplace Politics
- Class Action Waivers
- Criminal Background Checks
- Employee Performance Reviews
- Employee Personnel Files
- Federal Arbitration Act (FAA)
- Hiring and Firing
- Informal Discussion Letter (“EEOC Letter”)
- National Labor Relations Act
- Retaliation by Association
- Salary Threshold
- Unemployment Benefits
- Workplace Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation
- Business Insurance
- Communications Decency Act
- Employee Contracts
- Hosanna-Tabor Opinion
- Insurance Coverage
- Internet & Media Law
- Internet Defamation
- Non-Compete Agreement
- Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act
- USERRA
Rethinking the 24/7 Response
Always connected. Always available. Always responsive. In an era where personal electronic devices have become more of a technological appendage than merely a handy gadget, a growing number of employers are grappling with the question of how well-connected their employees should be. Employers certainly benefit from the ability of employees to be available at all times and through instantaneous connection. The instant problem is the way in which this constant connectivity begins to warp the work-life balance. Should employees respond to employment-related emails after hours? Should they text back to the boss in the evenings to respond to work inquiries? Should employers expect employees to be responsive around the clock? Some employers are beginning to change their expectations for employee responsiveness after hours, and possibly just in time to stave off impending wage and hour law implications.
Vynamic, a health care consulting firm in Philadelphia, has been in the spotlight lately for a practice it refers to as “zmail.” The company bans the sending and receiving of email from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. on weekdays and all weekend. It does this, it says, to reduce employee stress by providing a safe harbor for employees to rest and not contemplate workplace communications. The company reports less than 10% attrition in the last few years, so maybe this type of policy is working. Employees are not just given time in the evenings and weekends to relax, they are actually banned from communicating on work-related matters. This is not a ban on doing actual work for the company if the employee so desires, but it is a way to ensure that employees are receiving a legitimate break from the office.
Such measures will become increasingly important when the Department of Labor issues its final rule on the revised overtime exemption sometime in 2016. Under the new regulations, the minimum salary level for the “white collar” overtime exemption to take effect will more than double from the current level of $23,660. That means more than an estimated 5 million employees will suddenly require overtime pay for work done after hours. Reading and responding to email and texts and taking work-related calls will become activities that can create liability for employers that don’t adequately compensate non-exempt employees for such tasks once the new regulation takes effect.
Employers should begin to re-evaluate policies concerning after-hours work-related communication of employees, as the new regulations will likely prompt a sea change in how employees are compensated for what may seem like minor actions on behalf of the workplace done after the standard 40-hour workweek has been logged. Policies like “zmail” and even the shuttering of email servers during certain hours will become increasingly ubiquitous when the possibility of overtime liability becomes ever-present. The attorneys of McBrayer can assist employers with evaluating such policies in light of the impending overtime regulations, providing clear advice to reduce overtime liability and ensure regulatory compliance.
Services may be performed by others.
This article does not constitute legal advice.