As many retailers are doing what they can to maximize revenues during the holiday season, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) released the following list of common holiday season labor violations:
- Failing to pay workers for prepping or closing out a register.
- Requiring personnel to work through breaks without pay.
- Not paying overtime when employees work 40+hours in a workweek.
The rise of these types of claims is avoidable. Most businesses want to do the right thing by following the rules and paying employees the wages they earned. To that end, employers will often diligently develop and implement policies that require careful tracking and reporting of all hours worked.
During the holiday season, however, businesses tend to bring in temporary and seasonal workers who, being unfamiliar with the employer’s policies, may work through breaks and fail to capture their time appropriately. Even where it is an employee’s misconduct that causes a labor violation, the DOL will still penalize the employer.
So, what’s an employer to do? Here are three tips:
- Make sure all seasonal and temporary employees are properly trained on your policies and procedures.
- Consider investing in a punch clock and require all employees to punch in and out, especially for the holiday season or any time where you need to hire additional help.
- Address unauthorized time worked by disciplinary action, including termination, but still pay the employee for all time worked, even where the time was not authorized.
The Eastern Pennsylvania Employment Log (EPELog) is a publication of the KingSpry Employment Law Practice Group. Jeffrey T. Tucker, Esquire, is our editor-in-chief. EPELog is meant to be informational and does not constitute legal advice.
