No. Under WHD’s broadly applicable regulation and its continuous workday guidance, all time between the performance of the first and last principal activities of a workday is generally compensable work time. However, the Department recognized that applying this guidance to teleworking arrangement would discourage needed flexibility during the COVID-19 emergency. As such, the Department stated in the Family First Coronavirus Relief Act rulemaking that an employer that allows employees to telework with flexible hours during the COVID-19 emergency does not need to count as hours worked all the time between an employee’s first and last principal activities in a workday. For example, assume you and your employee agree to a telework schedule of 7–9 a.m., 11:30–3 p.m., and 7–9 p.m. on weekdays. This allows your employee, for instance, to help teach their children whose schools are closed, reserving for work times when there are fewer distractions. Of course, you must compensate your employee for all hours actually worked—7.5 hours—that day, but not all 14 hours between your employee’s first principal activity at 7 a.m. and last at 9 p.m.
2020
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