Is it the millennial mindset, or is the business world welcoming this surging emergence of tech integration to bend employee connectivity well beyond the 8-hour workday?
One online survey by Adobe found that 87 percent of American workers polled looked at work emails after hours. Half of those respondents said they expect the checking and answering of work emails to increase.
In France, a new law that just went into effect in 2017 allows users to disconnect completely from work email outside of work hours. The French can have one more glass of wine knowing that they won’t have to respond to a boss, client, or customer at night or on the weekends.
Despite the popular notion that lines are blurring because “it is what it is” and businesses operate 24/7/365 thanks to the internet, labor laws are in place to protect workers and ensure that wage fraud does not exist. According to the provisions laid out by the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must pay minimum wage, and overtime pay may not be less than one and one-half times an employee’s regular rate of pay after 40 hours of work in a workweek.
A common type of wage and hour violation that employees encounter is unpaid overtime. There are several industries where these violations are prevalent. Among them are the service industries – including restaurant and hotel employees, computer and high-tech employees, telecommunication sales and administrative employees, retail and commission employees, and loan, banking, and mortgage employees.
Account managers, loan officers, mortgage associates, loan processors, title and account reps, and other banking and loan industry workers often find themselves handling business outside of normal work hours. Whether it’s a follow-up call or around-the-clock paperwork to push a deal through, these loan account managers are required by law to be paid overtime. They also might encounter, missed meal periods, missed breaks, and several other off-the-clock violations.
Another big problem in the loan and banking industry are unreimbursed business expenses. Employees are entitled to be reimbursed for expenses, such as automotive and cell phone costs, incurred while performing their job duties. Most people are unaware that they are entitled to recover unreimbursed expenses dating back up to four years, with interest.
If you’ve experienced missed breaks or unpaid overtime, or you often answer off-the-clock phone calls or emails from a boss, co-worker, or even client at the direction of a supervisor, you may be eligible to seek compensation for that time.
Please contact Carter Law Firm.