Time Clock Issues

[tmoore98]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York
I work for a company whose hourly workers are primarily out in the field providing mobile imaging services. Prior to my coming on board, the company instituted a punch in time clock, where the employee has to clock themselves in and out. I have several concerns with this and need opinions on potential wage and hour issues with this time clock.
1. with most of the employees not in the office on a daily basis, the employee needs to call into the office and have whomever is available punch their time card in and out at the beginning or end of the day. Does this jeopardize the authenticity of proper time keeping for payroll purposes (create a wage & hour issue) if the individual employee is not performing this act?
2. Can a manager/supervisor be responsible for punching a time card of an employee if the employee cannot physically do it themselves?
3. The supervisor/manager has told the employees that are in the office and do punch in and out that if they clock out 1 minute before the end of their scheduled shift, she will dock them 10 minutes worth of pay. Is this legal?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I am taking on the HR role and primarily know PA HR issues but am not sure on NY. Thank you

 

[swalsh411]

If most of your employees are not in the office on most days, then a punch system where you have to be physically present in order to punch in or out simply isn't a good system for you. Have you considered switching to a more conventional timecard? There are systems where you can complete it online or over the phone. (basically the phone call substitutes for the punches).

Any system where anybody other than the employee is punching is more susceptible to accuracy issues. It would be very hard for the employer to prove they were paying for all time worked if an employee filed a wage claim.

You need to pay people for the time they worked even if they are punching in earlier or later than they should. You can write them up and even terminate them if they persist in this behavior but you can't not pay them for time they worked. And why would a supervisor have access to change an employee's punches? I hope whatever system you uses maintains an audit trail so you can see when this is happening.

 

[pattytx]

Actually, in most T & A systems, the first level of supervision IS the responsibile party for correcting mistakes on the system for his/her employees. Who else is in a better position to know what the employee worked and what the employee didn't work?

There is no law that says another employee can't clock an employee in.

Don't these employees have a laptop or other type of mobile device? There are systems where the employee can even "punch in" by phone.

 

[ecmst12]

Sounds like my job. My company is in the process of putting trackers in all the vehicles to track where they are all day. Once that's in place, they won't need to be clocked in or out because there will be objective proof of where they are and when they are working all day.