Employers are obliged to keep a record of the total working hours of each non-exempt as per the Fair Labor Standards Act. That implies that each company ought to shoulder the burden of producing these records and proving that they are indeed accurate.
In case of a lawsuit against an employer by a group of employees or the U.S Department of Labor for unwaged overtime or off-the-clock work, the employer must have a justifiable record-keeping practice. Otherwise, the employee’s records of the hours worked, which are often inflated, will be used for reference.
It is vital for time records to be accurate and reflect all the hours worked by employees
Such accuracy should be maintained whether you are using paper timesheets, punch clocks, or recording the work hours electronically with a work time tracker. While safeguards aren’t infallible (more so in cases where employees travel, telecommute, or work “in the field”), there are several tips for minimizing risk:
1. Keep your employees informed about prohibited timekeeping practices
Going by most employment laws, the employer’s policy is the common starting point. Be sure to indicate clearly on your timekeeping policy what’s allowed and what’s not. That should include, at least, a clear off-the-clock prohibition (particularly attending to emails after office hours).
What’s more, make it mandatory for employees to seek approval before working overtime. While employees must be compensated for all working hours (overtime included), employees with no preapproval may be up for disciplinary action or may be written up. It is also essential to establish a complaint procedure, which guides the procedure of reporting timekeeping concerns.
2. Normalise the confirmation of the accuracy of time records by employees
It is almost expected that most employees will claim to have worked for more hours than those indicated by the records. To avoid that, allow the employees to review and sign off in confirmation of the accuracy of their time records.
An affirmative act like entering their identification number, ticking on a box, or signing an acknowledgement is the most preferred. With that, an employee can hardly dispute the correctness of their time records. If they do, however, they will have to deny their own confirmations.
3. Make sure that records indicate all changes
Supervisors are not expected to alter employee’s time records. All they should be allowed to do is either approve or reject timesheets and send back the rejected ones to the employees coupled with a reason for rejection. By effecting changes, employees can then resubmit the timesheets and verify the accuracy of the corrected records again.
Where supervisors are allowed to edit the time records, it should be easy to view and track the original employees’ entries and the supervisor’s edits. Most timekeeping software includes audit trails. For paper timesheets, be sure to attach the original timesheet and record the amended entries on a separate timesheet.
4. Round cautiously
You may round the employees’ time to quarter-hour and round down their time seven minutes. Consequently, you must round up their time 8-14 minutes and record it as a quarter-hour. Rounding comes with risk and should be done with counsel’s advice. Where rounding is done, audit the time records periodically to ensure that rounded time cancels out to avoid any net loss to employees. If rounding grants the company an uneven amount of time, consider scrapping or revising the practice.
5. Desist from making automatic deductions
Brief breaks are compensable time, but meal breaks and uninterrupted rest of 30 or more minutes aren’t. Most timekeeping systems allow for automatic deduction of meal and rest breaks from employee’s work time. Keep off this option as it breeds collective actions. Instead, ask employees to record their actual meal period time.
Frequent audits are essential to ensuring that the information from the system is similar to the real information, regardless of the recording method. Particularly, pay attention to employees whose work hours indicate no fluctuation (those with all 9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. entries). Again, there is no infallible method, but employers who are keen on the accuracy of the timekeeping records of employees stand a better chance in court than those who don’t.