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

Spontaneous outbreak of common sense

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Spontaneous outbreak of common sense

[cayenne8]

Actually...it puts more incentive for people to try to opt for the contractor paradigm.

I don't mind working....but I do NOT work for free. If I do work at any time, I bill for it, and yes, it definitely makes the employer think twice about calling or bothering you after hours.

This, and considering that there is such thing as employer loyalty nor job security....hell, just about everyone should opt (if possible) for the contractor route.

If you're gonna get the loyalty and job security from an employer that a contractor gets, you might as well get the freedom, tax breaks and bill rate that a contractor gets....no?

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."
 

Re:Spontaneous outbreak of common sense

[Lumpy]

"that's why I quit my previous employer. The HR bitch at ABM was threatening to fire me if I didn't work off the clock and pay checks were usually quite late."

You fill out time cards anyways and turn them in with the overtime. make copies and send them and your pay stubs to the state.

HR bitch ends up fired, Company is fined a very significant amount of money and is forced to pay all back wages to all employees with interest.

If you keep your mouth quiet and act like a good slave they get away with this crap.

Re:Spontaneous outbreak of common sense

[sjames]

Complaining about having to answer AN email after hours might be silly, but if it becomes a regular part of your duties then you are effectively never off work. Enjoy answering AN email while your family is watching a movie, while your kid is in the school play, when everyone else is playing a game on the weekend, etc etc.

Why not take it to the logical next step. Perhaps you could take 2 or 3 hours worth of homework with you each night.

Re:Everyone already can do this

[sunderland56]

1. Team up with a co-worker.
2. Exchange a long string of emails back and forth each evening.
3. Profit!

Re:They'll just disable email on a schedule

[Hentes]

Not paying overtime by not requiring overtime work is exactly the purpose of this legislation I believe. What is wrong with that?

The first one to claim email overtime . . .

[PolygamousRanchKid]

. . . will be the last one to receive a promotion . . .

Dynamically weight and sort promotion list based on willingness to do overtime email for free.

Patent this.

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:They'll just disable email on a schedule

[Hentes]

Brazil is a leftist country, which means they take workers' rights seriously. You see, as there is a competition in a labour market, without regulations like minimal wage or overtime pay the companies could just require workers to work more for less pay, because there would always be someone else to take the job. By regulating overtime, the state ends the competition between the workers, thus solving the prisoners dilemma scenario and resulting in an environment that's better for everyone.

Re:on the other hand

[TheRaven64]

No, the manager's job is to make sure that the company's objective's are achieved on time and in budget. If an employee's overall productivity is higher if he or she takes periodic breaks to play Angry Birds or post on Slashdot rather than working solidly all of the time in the office, then only a bad manager would insist on removing the 'distractions'. Most people work best if they take short breaks quite frequently.

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.

Re:on the other hand

[Lumpy]

Competent IT will put in Stream reflectors for the users.

We put that in place for the 10 top played internet radio streams in the company, the $200.00 linux servers connects, and then rebroadcasts the stream to up to 500 users.

So I have 500 people listening with the bandwidth overhead of 10.

Re:on the other hand

[jd2112]

Competent IT will put in Stream reflectors for the users.

We put that in place for the 10 top played internet radio streams in the company, the $200.00 linux servers connects, and then rebroadcasts the stream to up to 500 users.

So I have 500 people listening with the bandwidth overhead of 10.

But when the competent IT staff proposes this management says 'Why don't we just block the streaming sites on the firewall for free?"