Workers In Brazil Can Claim Overtime For Answering Email After Hours

New submitter zzyvits writes "With smartphones becoming more and more common, the push for employees to work after hours is becoming greater. Would the push be as hard if the employers had to pay for it? A law recently passed in Brazil makes it possible for employees who answer emails after normal work hours to claim overtime pay."

Comments

on the other hand

[Anonymous Coward]

People also use their smartphone more during work hours for all things but work.

Re:on the other hand

[Rockoon]

It's the peons who use the fuck out of their smartphones, as well as the company's bandwidth streaming music and video, and generally not working.

If this was a real problem then they would be fired after making those things verboten. The employer is paying a rate derived from the amount of work actually done in practice by the typical employee, not the theoretical maximum amount of work a typical employee could perform.

Employees that recognize that they do more work than is typical should ask for a raise and if they do not get it should then respond in a rational manner by either reducing output or looking for a new job.

Re:on the other hand

[jd2112]

I'm pretty sure that you are replying to a troll though. The 'company's bandwidth streaming music' bit was a bit of a giveaway - streaming Internet radio uses very little bandwidth and lots of people work better with music in the background.

A single user streaming internet music is neglibile. A hundred can saturate your network connections to the point that the apps the employees should be running are no longer functional.

Re:Everyone already can do this

[TrekkieGod]

If you work after hours (no matter what you are specifically doing) and you are employed on a hourly basis then of course you can claim overtime. You do not need a specific law for this.

In Brazil, salaried workers get paid overtime if they work over 44 hours a week or more than 8 hours in a single day. So, if you worked a normal 40 hour week, but had to pull 10 hours on a tuesday, you get paid your salary plus 2 hours overtime.

nothing new

[queequeg1]

This isn't new, isn't specific to smartphones, and (as noted in the article) isn't unique to Brazil. Many employers have the ability to allow employees to check work email remotely from their home PCs. However, most sophisticated employers (or perhaps more paranoid) are careful about opening up such access to non-exempt employees (i.e. employees who are paid on an hourly basis) because of wage and hour issues. My employer (a US healthcare system) requires non-exempt employees to get manager permission before remote access is enabled and even then there are explicit rules about when the employees should be accessing email remotely. Compliance can be easily monitored but, conversely, wage and hour problems can also be easily proven through log in records.

Re:Spontaneous outbreak of common sense

[russotto]

Who is responsible for being so fair to workers? We'd never get that here (meaning US.)

It's already law in the US, for non-exempt employees. If you're required to respond to emails, the time you spend responding to them count as "hours worked".

29 C.F.R 785.12: "The rule is also applicable to work performed away from the premises or the job site, or even at home. If the employer knows or has reason to believe that the work is being performed, he must count the time as hours worked."