Aussie Workers are being forced to work extra hours without compensation, how could a Time and Attendance System help you avoid a potential lawsuit?

A backlog of projects to get through, and pushed to deliver them within the required timeframes?

If this sounds like your workplace, it may come as little surprise that many Australian employees are being forced to work extra hours without being compensated, as revealed by a new ACTU survey. 

The poll of 42,000 employees, believed to be one of the largest ever conducted with Australian workers, has found that many are under increasing pressure at work.

ACTU President Ged Kearney told ABC Radio, "We have in fact what we call a productivity squeeze which means businesses are achieving productivity (gains) through a great deal of pressure on workers,"

And what's more worrying is that there is a large amount of unpaid work being done - "We are being told by our members that they are working harder than ever, longer than ever and not getting paid for that extra work," she said.

HRMorning.com in their recent “Unauthorized OT: One big pitfall for supervisors” article, also found that many supervisors are cutting corners to avoid racking up an expensive overtime bill, by either not properly recording employees’ over time hours or simply not paying employees for the extra work.

But if one of those employees decides to notify Fair Work Australia, it’s going to end up costing a lot more than a little overtime pay, as a number of companies have discovered of late (See our previous Blog Post).

Kearney added that, a large number of respondents, particularly those in casual or part time positions, feel obligated to put in the extra hours for fear of not getting shifts or additional work when they may need it.

"This survey shows that workers are working harder than ever and that in some ways they're getting exploited even though the legislation is there to protect them."

So what can you do to avoid costly workplace lawsuits?

Labour and Employment Law Expert, Bill Pokorny from the Wage & Hour Insights Blog (which is a  great read BTW) advises supervisors to:

• Ensure employees are compensated for all hours worked 
• Set realistic expectations i.e. they can’t pressure employees to “just get it done” by working off the clock 
• Verify employees’ time records regularly to make sure workers are properly reporting their time – as even where employees don’t keep accurate time records, companies could still be on the hook for unpaid OT, if a supervisor knew about it.

Could an automated Time and Attendance system help? 

An automated Time and Attendance system would provide a complete, up to the minute record of all employee time and attendance data, giving an accurate insight into how long employees are spending at the office, or on specific jobs and projects. 

For salaried staff, this would allow you to ensure they are compensated for extra hours worked outside of their normal working day (may be in the form of Time Off in Lieu etc..). 

By analysing overtime data and work records, you may also find that it could be more cost effective to bring in additional resources or contractor staff in times of high demand as opposed to paying high overtime rates.

In addition, with mobile and web-based Time and Attendance applications, you could introduce flexi-work arrangements and work from home initiatives, which enable employees to record their start and finish times, as well as allocate time to specific jobs/projects - regardless of their location. 

Continue to our website to find out more information about Time and Attendance systems as well as other workforce management alternatives that may help you address overtime issues within your organisation.

Alternatively feel free to call us on 1300 884 831 (Australia) or 09 363 9557 (NZ)