S2020,

Looks like this is something you should add to your employee handbook.

Rich

 

I was going to say the exact same thing. Check the laws as NYC has stated, and then add it to an employee handbook. If you don't have one, I suggest you put one together and soon.

 

My usual 'shift' is eight hours and forty-five minutes long five days a week. There is no overtime in that. I don't clock in and out for lunch, I'm just allotted an unpaid 45 minutes as a lunch time that includes food procurement and/or preparation, not just consuming. When someone leaves their workstation and they're not performing a work-related function, they're either taking a brief break (paid) or they're off the clock.

 

Whatever. You don't get a free lawyer to sue your employer for whatever you want as an automatic perk for being an employee. That's a fantasyland invented by self-pitying employers.

In order to appeal for remedy from any legal body, the employee has to exhaust all possible avenues prior to beginning any kind of legal action. It's expensive, time-consuming, a huge hassle for the employee seeking redress, and not something a "lazy person" undertakes or completes. If someone bothers to go through all the hassle and expense, it's pretty tough to argue that they were a terrible, lazy employee that wasn't very bright. It's more probably that their employment experience with you was a prime motivator, and perhaps your treatment of the employee in question are coming back to bite you.

And it's "bleed you dry," not "drip you dry." If you run afoul of the Department of Labor, it's your own fault. Obey the laws and you'll be fine. Think somehow you have a priviledged position simply because you are an employer, and yes, you just might get the feeling there is an agency out there specifically formed to intervene.

 

Certainly most legal cases take a LOT of time and a LOT of money, I won't argue with you there. But that's MOST. Not all; not nearly all, as your seem to imply with "Obey the laws and you'll be fine." But a very healthy percent. There are situations where people are able to use legal avenues to milk money from their (ex)employers in a sort of unjust way. No system is perfect. I feel Dave just tries to watch out for those small situations--a good thing to be wary of...

 

There are still a few "ambulance chaser" types of lawyers out there who specialize in taking advantage of employment laws. Even if the employee was legally fired the ambulance chaser will attempt to hassle the employer into settling out of court.

I used to work with a girl who was the typical "lazy employee". She took advantage of every opportunity to goof off and not do her job. Of course she was eventually fired and of course she sued - pretty bold to sue a law firm, but she had this down to a routine...we found out she had two other lawsuits going with two other companies she used to work for. She ended up losing her first two lawsuits then she dropped her suit against my firm. She got nothing but a bill from the ambulance chaser for a few thousand bucks.

 

^ This. A fired employee can certainly file suit. They are not guaranteed to win, however. And they pay their own legal bills.

 

People like that are disgusting. They are the reason you do a paid background check, and call around.

 

I'm hourly at the local hospital, and even walking to the cafeteria, we are supposed to clock out when we leave our office. Your employee deserves some correctional actions.

 

Do me a favor, when you get a clue, you can post with adults, until them, stop spouting off information like an asshat. Would you like me to link you to a multi million dollar award lawsuit in NY won with a free DOL lawyer? Hell, the employees didn't have to even do much.

When you are an employer, you can talk to me. You can talk to me when you have some asshat employee running to the DOL because you fired them for just cause, but they just want to stick it to you. The only person a DOL lawsuit costs money is the employer. It has nothing to do with breaking the law, that is not what this thread is all about. It is about a stupid employee that has the potential hate in her to do your business harm, so it's not always one sided.