Ride the Lightning

WILL BLACKBERRYS BITE EMPLOYERS?

May 7, 2008

The National Law Journal recently featured an article which asserted that employers should be wary of a predicted wave of suits claiming overtime pay is due, those suits supported by irrefutable electronic evidence of e-mailing and dealing with phone calls after hours. Though BlackBerrys took center stage in the article, clearly any smartphone might prove problematic.

Some employees are exempt from the overtime requirements, but virtually all businesses have some non-exempt employees who may have a good case for making overtime demands. In order to stave off such suits, lawyers are recommending that businesses adopt clear smartphone usage policies (in addition to the computer polices they should have already) and obtain employee sign-off on those policies.

Reportedly, some law firms are already trolling for clients to lead the charge in this area. In response to the buzz in the press, businesses are beginning to make the decision to issue smartphones only to exempt employees. In a world where these devices have begun to be dispensed as routinely as Pez, it was probably inevitable that these devices would bring legal headaches. Time for another policy review.

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