Companies have had to change how they connect with consumers in an increasingly digital world. Even local businesses often need to have a website and a presence on major social media platforms. Customers and clients want quick and easy options for communicating with a business.
Most organizations do not want to absorb the cost of having someone on hand 24/7 to respond to emails or inquiries via social media. In some cases, they may delegate that work to specific employees. There may be an expectation that certain workers continue to respond to social media messages or emails on the weekends or during the evenings.
Passing the responsibility of communicating with customers and clients to existing workers who know the company and have proven customer service skills may seem like a reasonable option. However, those workers may want to be paid for the time committed to those tasks. Do job responsibilities that workers can do quickly and remotely still require hourly pay?
Workers deserve pay for all time worked
In many states, employers might be able to justify requiring that workers occasionally check their email or the company’s social media pages over the weekend or in the evening after work. In California, however, the matter is a bit more complex. The California courts have rejected the federal concept of de minimis exceptions for pay for hourly work.
In most states, companies can have hourly workers handle small tasks that require a tiny amount of time and effort without pay under the de minimis rule. Courts in California have previously affirmed that workers paid on an hourly basis deserve compensation for all time worked.
In other words, hourly employees who must respond to electronic communications over the weekends or while they are not on the schedule can demand pay for that time. Companies may want to assign social media and email communication to a specialist paid on a salary basis to avoid scenarios in which workers might try to make wage and hour claims against the organization.
Learning about how California’s employment laws deviate from laws in other states can help organizations avoid potential wage violations. Wage lawsuits for uncompensated work can cost a company quite a bit of money and can also damage its reputation. Having scheduling and email coverage policies that accurately reflect state law can help protect employers from legal action initiated by frustrated hourly workers.