The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and its Pennsylvania counterpart, the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act (“PMWA”), require that non-exempt workers receive wages for all “compensable time.”
Tracking “compensable time”, however, is not always simple. Technological advances make it easy for employees to perform work tasks outside of standard work hours or from locations other than the workplace. Increasingly, many employers operate on a “24/7” basis, and the line between an employee’s “off duty” time and “compensable time” can become blurred.
Time spent performing the following common activities might constitute “compensable time” for which an employee may be entitled to receive wages-regardless of when or where the activities are performed:
- reading or answering work-related e-mails
- participating in telephone calls which relate to the employer’s business
- surfing the web for business purposes, such as, for example, researching the best deal for office supplies
- dropping off packages at a delivery service
- arriving at work early to turn on computers or machinery so that operations can begin promptly at the beginning of a shift
- being “on call” outside of work hours
- putting on and removing special clothing or safety equipment
- waiting to receive a delivery
- traveling between different locations to perform work, such as, for example, driving between customer sites for maintenance calls
- waiting while equipment is being repaired or cleaned
- “covering” for a co-worker while on an unpaid break
Contact the Law Firm of DiOrio & Sereni, LLP
To paraphrase baseball great Yogi Berra, the modern work day “ain’t over ’til it’s over.” Whether you are an employee who suspects that you are not being paid for certain work you perform or an employer who may have questions about compensable time, we can help you. Contact Mark A. Sereni, Esquire at [email protected].
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