Businesses are struggling to track employee hours in a COVID-19 world of remote work, and some have become the target of wage-and-hour claims from disgruntled workers who have been furloughed or laid off.
John Viola, an employment lawyer with Thompson Coburn LLP, said employers have seen an uptick in claims from displaced employees who are taking legal action as a remedy to their situation.
Although motivated by their loss of work as a result of the pandemic, the claims are typically not tied to COVID-19, he said.
“The actions are usually linked to issues that weren’t brought to light before the health crisis hit,” Viola said. “It could be a case where someone alleges unpaid wages or they were not getting lunch or rest breaks.”
Employees have a year in which to bring file a claim under the Private Attorneys General Act. That authorizes workers to file lawsuits to recover civil penalties on behalf of themselves, other employees and the state of California for labor code violations.
“You can also bring a civil action as yourself,” Viola said. “That can represent a class of workers for unpaid wages, and it can be filed up to three years later.”
Monitoring employee hours
Beyond that, tracking employee hours while people are working from home can be tricky.
Many businesses have moved to a remote work environment while others have adopted a hybrid model that allows employees to work at home for part of the week. Both are aimed at reducing workers’ exposure to COVID-19.
But accurately tracking their work hours isn’t easy.
“Wage and hour rules don’t go out the window just because someone is working from home,” Viola said. “But it’s hard for an employer to monitor rest and meal breaks. If someone has gone past five hours of work without a break, for example, you need to say, ‘take a lunch.’ “
Digital tools are available that allow employers to electronically track how long employees are away from their computers, he said, and they’re seeing increased use as more employees work from home, either full or part time.
Monitoring can raise privacy concerns, but Viola said that won’t apply in many cases. “There is no expectation of privacy while using a company computer, iPad or cellphone,” he said.
On the flip side, employers are at risk if a worker performs company-related business on their personal computer.
“If you’re sitting in a Starbucks, someone could look over your shoulder,” Viola said. “And if you’re using your personal email account to do company business the privacy of that company could be compromised.”
Here to stay
As the pandemic winds down, many businesses plan to continue remote work options. A Gartner survey of company leaders found that 82% plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the time after the pandemic, while 47% will allow employees to work from home full-time.
Another FlexJobs survey reveals that 27% of workers would be willing to take a pay cut of up to 20% if they could continue to work remotely.
Still, some employers fear their employees will be less productive working from home. Viola said businesses can monitor off-site workers in a number of ways.
The key to combating that issue is to maintain communication with your employees,” he said. “You can hold conference calls for business-related issues and ZOOM meetings where they just check in to see how they’re doing during the pandemic.”