http://www.pickarticle.com/ Articles at Pick Article Directory - Submit Your Articles en-us http://www.pickarticle.com/business/human-resources/labor-relations/consider-the-potential-cost-of-not-tracking-employee-time-and-attendance.html http://www.pickarticle.com/business/human-resources/labor-relations/consider-the-potential-cost-of-not-tracking-employee-time-and-attendance.html Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:10:33 -0500 I was recently in court assisting with the case of a property management firm that terminated an employee based on unsatisfactory performance; the former employee then turned around and sued for wrongful dismissal, demanding a sizable settlement for unpaid overtime. This was an unusual case in that the employee was a maintenance worker whose job involved driving to remote locations and autonomously performing various tasks. For example, his schedule might have him assigned to a particular building for the day and his task would be inspecting the premises and taking care of any maintenance issues he might note: spot cleaning carpets, replacing light bulbs, that sort of thing. Contractors were hired to regularly perform cyclical maintenance items like floor cleaning, window washing and gardening, so he really was just keeping on top of the contractors and taking care of any one-offs that arose. You can probably see where this one is going. The company began to receive complaints that some of the buildings he was assigned to were looking a little shabby and there were reports from some of his coworkers that he was taking extended lunches or sometimes taking the afternoon off to go golfing. A supervisor eventually caught the employee red-handed by dropping by a site where he was supposed to be working and finding he was absent. The company fired the employee, but that’s when their method for tracking employee attendance became a serious liability. The ex-employee filed suit and claimed in court that he was actually waiting at a walk-in medical clinic when the supervisor had checked up on him. Further, the man asserted that he typically worked in excess of the 40 hours per week he was paid for, often skipping lunches and staying late to complete tasks. The company had no way to disprove what the man was claiming, other than the speculation of coworkers, and so they ended up paying a significant settlement. The ironic part of this case, and the lesson that HR departments can take away, is that an investment in remote time management and tracking equipment can be significantly less than the cost of paying out for one wrongful dismissal suit. The company could have issued a battery-powered time clock to the employee, providing detailed records of his work hours. Any overtime actually being worked could have been dealt with at the time through integrated scheduling software and the company would have records protecting it against exploitive legal action.

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