Posted on 03/24/2018 9:54:10 AM PDT by Olog-hai
A City Council member wants to crack down on bosses who require their employees to maintain contact after hours, and his idea is picking up steam.
Raphael Espinal, who represents the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick, Bronwsville, Cypress Hills and East New York, is set to introduce a bill in a City Council meeting on Thursday that establishes New Yorkers’ “right to disconnect.” The legislation would make it illegal for employers to require employees to access work-related electronic communication outside of their regular work period.
If passed, the law would allow workers who are regularly bombarded by urgent, late-night emails from their bosses to issue complaints to the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs, which would then proceed launch an investigation. The legislation only applies to businesses with at least 10 employees, and those that are found to be in violation of the law would be subject to civil fines. […]
The bill will be presented to the City Council on Thursday. It currently has no co-sponsors, but Espinal hopes to hold a hearing on it in a meeting of the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Business Licensing (of which he is the chair) before the summer. …
(Excerpt) Read more at timeout.com ...
Big business has been leaving for years. This will just speed up the bugout.
My last job paid me for 4 hours for the call in even it only took 15 minutes to fix the problem.
My husband and I are employed by our church, not ministerial and hourly. Since our micromanaging boss/pastor is such a jerk we call such phone calls harassment and charge “harassment pay.” Clock starts running when we answer.
It became difficult to remember that we were working for Jesus...ultimately.
“labor law already prohibits employers from requiring employees to conduct work-related activity when they are off-duty”
Maybe for some, but certainly not for most salaried jobs - never off duty.
But some of the employees got "stressed out" that their personal time was getting infringed on. Mind you, they were getting these emails mostly on company owned devices. So they were surfing the web on OUR device and a boss from their email came in. Oh, the humanity!
Yes, a class action lawsuit was brought to bear. On a national basis. We settled out of court. The lawyers made millions. The employees got checks averaging a few hundred dollars.
The settlement was so absurd that during snowstorms, we weren't allowed to notify them by email that the office was closed if it was not during business hours. We ended up setting up phone numbers for them to call where they could get announcements like that without us being accused of violating their time.
We then set up our network so that hourly employees could no longer log into the network after hours with their devices unless we authorized them for overtime and issued them a special password. In fact, they weren't allowed to use company devices at all after hours so many of them ended up having to purchase their own laptops and cell phones for personal use - where before, we did not mind them using our company devices for personal use (so they saved a lot of money that way).
Just goes to show that certain people can't have nice things.
Another effect of this is that we are now hiring our management from the outside. We used to develop managers from within but the employees are so hamstrung with regard to what they can do after hours that all they can do is do their regular jobs and punch out at 5 - just like the worker drones that they now are.
You may get called in and yes, it can be annoying at times but you get well compensated for it.
I once earned a week of vacation time in a month when we were installing a new time system.
Of course now days the boss calls me in at all times of the day or night when there is a problem and the cheapskate doesn't even give me a cup of coffee. Such are the joys of being the owner.
“Being the OWNER” is a phrase that has ramifications unknown to the vast majority of the world.
YOU are on duty 24/7/365 whether you like it or not. Your hours are not counted, your worries are your own, a single weather “incident” can ruin a season or even the business.
You have no “perks’ and get no consideration. Poor baby!!
As for me, each morning, I tell my “boss” off and call him every bad name I learned in the Navy..all the while shaving.
HE is a real stinker.
Our company moved to a new location over the Thanksgiving weekend and they wanted my lab up and running by Monday so I worked long hours to get it done. They even brought in Thanksgiving meals for us. I succeeded in getting the lab up and running and received a hefty bonus from the CEO.
If the employee is FLSA non-exempt, then the employer must pay or compensate any time worked outside of duty hours. Exempt employees must be compensated, not paid. And the employee can refuse to work when off-duty.
Where I work, the issue is that many employees work extra time and we are trying to minimize that activity. I get talked to also, because I don’t want to leave work until my work is done. I don’t care, I’m on a salary.
The end of the era for salaried employee...
Voters in NYC better enjoy “punching a clock” and with respect to a lackadaisical work ethic, I would predict tumbling paycheck totals as well.
Well, there goes New York. Let’s see how they feel when there’s a huge catastrophe and they need more FD and PD.
Worked in Manhattan for almost 40 yrs. My job is in Charlotte, NC now.
And worse yet the example talked about email. The employee can choose to read or act on the email — or not. If the phone is on silent the email will not disrupt anyone...
I am in management for my group that staffs a 24/7 hospital. I can and do get called with issues 24/7 including 3 am and holidays. I get a management stipend and this is presumed part of my job. If ondont like it I can always resign from manacement
If I have a shift uncovered by an emergency I can and do contact my staff at home by text email phone or any other way I can get a hold of them. They have caller ID and can choose not to answer. Part of being a professional is taking care of your workplace and that sometimes means getting contacted outside your normal work hours Don’t like it? Find another job or profession
And by the way I have docs that work only night shifts. Does that mean I can only email them overnight and not during the day? Absurd law.
Words fail me. Did they put Hogg in charge?
In my first 30 years I worked 15 years of overtime - unpaid. Don’t regret a minute of it. And, as a result my co-workers, management, and customers knew they could depend on me, and I would never leave a crucial issue un-resolved just because it was 5 o’clock. And my successful career has lasted 50 years and counting. And, I always knew I had the option to resign and seek employment elsewhere. And all the people who left when they could have stayed to resolve the problems and meet the deadlines wondered why I got the nicer office and the better raises/promotions.
Sounds like typical leftist & European Onion B/S.
Being called to work an additional shift is only one possibility.
The boss might also be calling, e.g., to find out how to convert a Microsoft Word file into a PDF... or because he needs you to explain to him how to create a Table of Contents... or because he can't figure out how to turn off the spellcheck, or create a header in a PowerPoint, etc.
I had a boss like that once... Was the most-inept fellow with software you could imagine... And was always very apologetic... "Really, it will take only a minute!"... But, of course, it took much longer than a minute...
Regards,
EVERY business in the USA is over-regulated already.
I started full time work when I was 17 & I am now 78. I have been self- employed since 1980 & still have 2 bookkeeping clients.
I have made calls & received calls ‘after work hours’. NEVER was offended. There can be any number of reasons why a person might need to contact you.
With all the focus on “GLOBAL ECONOMY” action, anything could happen elsewhere in the world that would require your boss to reach you.
This isn’t an issue for NYC or any other location to administer. It is between the boss & his employees.
Would they also apply such a rule to all police-firemen-and emergency personnel if another 9-11 attack occurred? OF COURSE NOT. Get the H out of MY business & other businesses.
IF an ‘employee’ doesn’t like being contacted ‘after hours’-—QUIT THE JOB.
Are they hourly or salaried?
If hourly, they should get paid for the bother.
I owned my own company for just under ten years and I used to tell him all the time that he was a jerk and that he always overworked me without just compensation.
I am amazed he never fired me.
Even though I was an engineer in a scientific billet I was the most computer literate of all my coworkers. trying to get a computer retard through the steps to do almost anything, even if it was really simple, would take me an hour or more while on the phone.
Having to describe what "right click" meant would take two minutes or more before they would comprehend.
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