When you tell an employee that they must be at work and ready to start at 7.30 am, do you expect to see them at 7.20 am? Is this reasonable?
The basic premise of a start time is that the employee is at their work station ready to commence work at the nominated time. They could be running through the door with ten seconds to go and still not technically be late for work.
An employer in Tasmania was fined $26,400 in 2008 for the practice of requiring employees to be at work before their nominated start time and for requiring unpaid overtime at the end of the day. They were also required to make good the underpayments.
The retail business strictly enforced the early starts and late finishes, which were used to prepare the store for business before it opened and to close the store down at the end of the day after the doors shut. Employees were not paid for the time they worked before or after store opening hours.
For employers, the message coming out of this case is that if you need an employee to start or finish at a particular time in order to get the work done, payment must be made from (or to) that time.
For more information about what an employer can or can’t require from an employee, contact Emma Watt on (03) 8833 3712 or 0411 708 073, or email on emma@emmawatt.com.au.
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