So, beware.  The DOL has just made it easier for employees to build their case, especially if they can legitimately argue that your recordkeeping system is not trustworthy.  While the DOL does not indicate how it can determine whether what an employee enters on either the app or the printable time sheet is accurate or dependable, remember that it is the employer that has the burden of proof.  Not only is it the employer’s responsibility to keep accurate records, it should also be your goal.  Being able to show that employees follow your recordkeeping procedures, that there is limited access to time records with a limited number of users who can make adjustments to these records, and that any and all changes can be and are tracked is essential to defending a claim by an employee that he has worked more hours than he has been paid.  Even with all that, it will be telling to see how this new technology comes into play when there is a disparity between an employers records and the information contained on his phone. 

By Karen Smith, Member
Miller & Martin PLLC
ksmith@millermartin.com | (423) 785-8209

On appeal of their criminal convictions, the defendants argued that their sentence was too harsh because they had not engaged in extortion, but only blackmail.  The Court of Appeals disagreed, deciding that the two jobs which each paid the unqualified employees $150,00 in annual compensation were indeed “things of value”.

Accordingly, instead of reducing the six month prison sentence and two year probation, the court sent the matter back for harsher sentencing than the trial court had originally imposed.

Be careful what you ask for.

Larry W. Bridgesmith, Of Counsel

Phone: 615-744-8580

Suite 1200, One Nashville Place
150 Fourth Avenue North
Nashville, TN 37219

lwbridgesmith@millermartin.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qD72NCJSkk

Effective Remedies in Organizing Campaigns

http://www.nlrb.gov/shared_files/GC%20Memo/2011/GC%2011-01%20Effective%20Remedies%20in%20Organizing%20Campaigns.pdf

Indeed, for those of us who have been anticipating rulemaking from the NLRB, there is this nugget, “[w]e leave for another day the adoption of a general standard for regulating prerecognition negotiations between unions and employer.  As the Supreme Court has observed, there are issues of labor law where the “’nature of the problem, as revealed by unfolding variant situations,’ requires ‘an evolutionary process for its rational response, not a quick, definitive formula as a comprehensive answer.’”

http://www.nlrb.gov/shared_files/Board%20Decisions/356/v35649.pdf

Apologies for the delay in getting The Word back up and running (and to Colin Quinn for poorly copping his intro as anchor to SNL’s “Weekend News”).  Keep coming back, we’ll be here.

I’m doing fine. Just decided to take a little time off. I’ve been thinking a lot, however, and that can only mean a flurry of posts. Happy New Year to all!

I must thank my friends at M. Lee Smith Publishers for their help and support in getting the blog going. They have also been responsible for keeping me half-way on track during the year. I must thank those of you who’ve become regular readers and for the feedback you’ve given me. Your comments are always appreciated. And I must thank my fellow bloggers. I’ve not only enjoyed reading your blogs, but you have taught me much.

I guess I did develop a plan for the blog as time went on: to draw employment law and workplace lessons from pop culture. Thus, I have often dealt with subjects, incidents, settings and people not, at first blush, associated with employment law or the traditional workplace. While I’ve blogged about labor and employment cases, laws and issues, I’ve also blogged about sports, religion, politics, education, government, the upper echelons of Corporate America, dining, fashion, sex (The Man Gene), guns, animal rights, technology, movies, television, theater, music, science, celebrities, the military, the environment, and the economy – to discern (or attempt to) an employment lesson from a noteworthy happening in the context of one of these subjects.

Occasionally, I’ve been criticized (and, by the way, I appreciate the criticism as much as anything else) for trying to find a lesson where there isn’t one or stretching too far to make a questionable point or being inconsistent by trying to compare apples and oranges. I’m not above doing any of that, but I’m attempting to be more judicious in linking employment law with pop culture. 

I don’t know what the next year of blogging holds, but I plan to keep on keeping on. I value your input, so please keep it coming. Thanks and cheers!

Happy trails.