To avoid being sued for not paying overtime is to follow some basic principles and policies. Make sure that you, your Supervisors and your Employees clearly understand the overtime policy. There should be no “comp time” and no Off-the-Clock work with a nudge and a wink. Using Comp Time is not an acceptable way of avoiding overtime claims. Train your managers and make sure they know they could be disciplined for violating the policy.
What should that policy look like? It should clearly state that all non-exempt employees are eligible for overtime ONLY if it is previously requested and approved by a supervisor/manager. In Illinois that means any hours worked over 40 in a work week. The Policy should be strictly followed by management. In addition, there should be consequences for not following the policy for both management and employees. If a manager specifically tells an employee to wrap it up and go home and he or she doesn’t, those hours are not “approved” overtime. If the manager lets the employee continue to do this without consequences, the manager is in fact violating the law and should be subject to discipline too.
By: Kennneth S. McLaughlin, Jr. and Kerry Rieder-McLaughlin