US DOL Makes It Easier For Employees To Gather Evidence

May 11, 2011

By: John M. Bagyi

On Monday, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) released a smartphone App that is essentially a timesheet to help employees independently track the hours they work and determine the wages they are owed. The App is available here.

With this App (available in English and Spanish), employees can track regular work hours, break time and any overtime hours. As promoted by the DOL - "This new technology is significant because, instead of relying on their employers’ records, workers now can keep their own records. This information could prove invaluable during a Wage and Hour Division investigation when an employer has failed to maintain accurate employment records."
 

While this App is currently compatible with only the iPhone and iPod Touch, the DOL plans to explore updates that could enable similar versions for other smartphone platforms, such as Android and BlackBerry, and other pay features not currently provided for, such as tips, commissions, bonuses, deductions, holiday pay, pay for weekends, shift differentials and pay for regular days of rest.

While this may seem inconsequential to some employers, bear in mind that in wage and hour audits/litigation, employees routinely seek to undermine the validity of employer time records by asserting that the employer's time records are inaccurate or that supervisors have instructed them to falsify their time records. Should the employee succeed in advancing such an allegation and make use of this new App, the DOL (in its current employee-focused mindset) would undoubtedly turn to the employee's time records and may rely on them to establish the actual hours worked by the employee.