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Human Resources

I am an employer who allows my employees to telework during the COVID-19 emergency. Now that my employees are no longer at my worksite, how do I determine their hours of compensable work? Do I have to pay my employees for hours I did not authorize them to work? Do I have to pay them for hours worked even when they do not report those hours?

Work performed away from the primary worksite, including at the employee’s home, is treated the same as work performed at the primary worksite for purposes of compensability. Therefore, you must compensate your employee for all hours of telework actually performed away from the primary worksite, including overtime work, in accordance with the FLSA, provided that you knew or had reason to believe the work was performed. This is true even of hours of telework that you did not authorize. You also must compensate your employee for unreported hours of telework that you know or have reason to believe had been performed. However, you are not required to compensate your employee for unreported hours of telework that you have no reason to believe had been performed, i.e., where you neither knew nor should have known about the unreported hours.  In most cases, you may satisfy your obligation to compensate your teleworking employee by providing reasonable time-reporting procedures and compensating that employee for all reported hours.


2020

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