Amazon has been hit with a FLSA lawsuit for unpaid overtime based on its practice of rounding employees’ clock-in and clock-out times to the nearest quarter hour. As is typical, the newspaper account of the lawsuit quotes extensively from the complaint and leaves the impression that Amazon must have done something wrong. In reality, there is nothing per se wrong with the practice or rounding hours. FLSA regulations recognize the practice of recording employees’ starting time and stopping time to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest one-tenth or quarter of an hour. The regulations state:
Presumably, this [rounding] arrangement averages out so that the employees are fully compensated for all the time they actually work. For enforcement purposes this practice of computing working time will be accepted, provided that it is used in such a manner that it will not result, over a period of time, in failure to compensate the employees properly for all the time they have actually worked.
Thus, the issue is whether the rounding practices employed by Amazon, over a period of time, resulted in failure to compensate the employees properly for all the time they actually worked.
When it comes to rounding, most practitioners suggest that the way to avoid trouble is to always round in favor of the employee. My first question is why round at all? With the technology available today, why not record exact hours and avoid the issue?
Topics/Tags
Select- Labor & Employment Law
- Employment Law
- Discrimination
- EEOC
- Labor Law
- Americans with Disabilities Act
- Department of Labor
- OSHA
- Pregnancy Discrimination
- Coronavirus
- Title VII
- NLRB
- Workplace Violence
- Non-Compete Agreements
- Supreme Court
- Reasonable Accommodation
- Religion Discrimination
- FLSA
- Department of Justice
- Compliance
- NLRA
- National Labor Relations Board
- Diversity
- Wage & Hour
- Privacy
- Performance Improvement Plans
- Department of Homeland Security
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- Foreign Nationals
- Immigration and Nationality Act
- Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
- Federal Trade Commission
- Arbitration
- FMLA
- Overtime Pay
- Employment Litigation
- Workplace Accommodations
- Artificial Intelligence
- Inclusion
- LGBTQ+
- Litigation
- IRS
- Medical Marijuana
- Social Media
- Employer Policies
- Disability Discrimination
- Retirement
- National Labor Relations Act
- Accommodation
- Sexual Orientation Discrimination
- Race Discrimination
- Employer Handbook
- ERISA
- ADAAA
- Medical Cannabis Dispensaries
- Unions
- ACA
- Affordable Car Act
- Employer Rules
- Whistleblower
- United States Supreme Court
- Sexual Harassment
- Technology
- Federal Arbitration Act
- Transgender Issues
- Disability
- 401(k)
- Employment Settlement Agreements
- Sixth Circuit
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- Fair Labor Standards Act
- Benefits
- Paycheck Protection Program
- Class Action Litigation
- Disability Law
- Gender Identity Discrimination
- Posting Requirements
- E-Discovery
- Evidence
- Securities Law
- Family and Medical Leave Act
- Preventive Care Benefits
- Environmental Law
- Health Savings Account
- Privacy Laws
- SECURE Act
- US Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration
- Representative Election Regulations
- Healthcare Reform
- Older Workers' Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA)
- Telecommuting
- Affirmative Action
- Compensable Time
- Electronically Stored Information
- Equal Opportunity Clause
- Security Screening
- E-Discovery Case Law
- Electronic Data Discovery
- ESI
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration
- American Medical Association
- Attendance Policy
- Return to Work
- Seniority Rights
- Unemployment Insurance Integrity Act
- Classification
- Confidentiality
- Disability Leave
- Equal Pay
- Fair Minimum Wage
- Federal Minimum Wage
- Genetic Information Discrimination
- Media Policy
- Misclassification
- National Origin Discrimination
- Retaliation
- Social Media Content
- State Minimum Wage
- Wage Increase
- Antitrust
- Employment Incentives
- HIRE Act
- Social Security Tax
- Taxation
Recent Posts
- OSHA’s Updated Inspection Program: What Employers Should Know and Expect
- SCOTUS Lowers Bar for Reverse Discrimination Claims
- Revisiting ADA Compliance: Lessons from a Recent Court Decision
- Federal Court Strikes Down Part of EEOC Rule Requiring Accommodations for Elective Abortion Under the PWFA
- More on Equal Opportunity: Executive Order Seeks to End Disparate Impact Liability to promote Equal Opportunity
- PIP This: The Expansion of Actionable Adverse Employment Decisions in the Wake of Muldrow v. City of St. Louis
- The Independent Contractor Tug-of-War: Navigating the Latest DOL Shifts
- ICE Raids and Audits – What’s an Employer to Do
- New Online Registration Requirements for Foreign Nationals
- Workplace Violence: Are You Taking Required Steps to Protect Your Employees?