I want to know whether it is legal for an employer to require a
salaried exempt employee to fill out an online time/status sheet.

Specifically...I have a master's degree and work in a highly technical
job in the computer field. I work in the state of Mississippi.  I am
expected to work overtime without compensation.

My employee has, in addition to a timesheet that we must fill out
daily, another online electronic form to keep track of us. It is
explained by management as a "safety sheet" to track our location if
there is a fire and we are not at our desk. It specifically timestamps
each entry we make, and we are told to use it everytime we leave our
desk for more han 10 minutes.

I am ok with a non-electronic "in/out" status board, but management
prefers the online method because they can get accurate time-stamps
also.

Is this legal? I find this sort of harassment unacceptable, and rather
than leaving my job, I'd like to explore the legality of this first.

I will pay $20 to the first person to specifically answer my question
with legal, factual sources. Refering me to "see a local attorney" or
reference "local statutes" will not answer this question to my
satisfaction.

Thanks!

Hello patsmsg-ga.

I?m not posting this as an answer because I don?t have the time to
research specific Missouri laws that apply to workplace privacy.

A quick preliminary search shows that there is more and more software
available to monitor every aspect of employee activity in the
workplace and that legal standards haven?t kept pace with the
deployment of these technologies. In the meantime, employers can
pretty much do what they like unless restricted by specific laws or
local agreements.

You might even consider yourself lucky that your employer still relies
on voluntary compliance with the mandated logging of your activities.
They could easily implement a variety of much more comprehensive
electronic tools to log every moment of your time at work ? including
how much you ?wiggle? in your chair.

I think you?ll find these articles instructive.

All the best.

~ czh ~


http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/05/04/rfid_employee_m.html
RFID employee monitoring
Always-On Panopticon...or Cooperation Amplifier

Omron's new production management system exploits RFID tags, video
cameras, access/security control systems, etc. to monitor how much
employees' contribute to the production. Employees carry mandatory
RFID tags so that the system can monitor their whereabouts but also
their work performance.

http://www.ewin.com/articles/faq.htm#Extime
Tracking Exempt Employees' Attendance: Exempt Employee's Time Sheets

Many firms -- mostly consulting, advertising, engineering, or law --
have exempt employees filling out time sheets for billable hours and
project costs, there is nothing that would stop other types of
companies from using the same methodology. This is not the same as
treating exempt employees in the same way that you do nonexempt or
hourly, and there is no danger of losing an exemption by forcing
exempts to fill out attendance sheets.

http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2004dltr0015.html
1984 IS STILL FICTION: ELECTRONIC MONITORING IN THE WORKPLACE AND U.S. PRIVACY LAW

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs7-work.htm
Employee Monitoring: Is There Privacy in the Workplace?

Thanks for taking the time to comment. 
First: I am asking about Mississippi rather than missouri.

I appreciate you taking the time to post the articles, but none of
them specifically addresses my question.

1st article addresses employee monitoring in a factory (ie non-exempt) setting.
I am specifically speeking exempt employees.

2nd article addresses timesheets (which I do fill out and have no
problem with doing on a weekly basis because it is important to
project billing). It does not address my question regarding being
forced to account for my location all day long via electronic
monitoring using an online tool with timestamps.

3rd and 4th articles strictly address right to privacy in the
workplace which is not my specific question, although that question
may play some role in thelegality of this concern.

Thanks for taking the time to respond though. It was nice of you.

Hellow patsmsg-ga,

Sorry about confusing the states. The point I'm making is that the
policies you find so onerous are probably legal. There must be serious
problems at your company if management feels the monitoring is
appropriate and necessary. The monitoring will not solve their
problems. Suing or other legal action will not solve your problems.
Doing the research to show you the reasons for my conclusions would
take more time than is reasonable at the price you've posted.

All the best.

~ czh ~

Hello Patsmsg,

Some more free advice.

[1] If there is an announcement / expectation of this kind of
monitoring in advance, you won't find anything that makes this
illegal. There are specific rules related to telephone conversations
and email, but not on location tracking.

[2] If anything, this kind of monitoring is becoming more frequent -
even affecting the US Congress. See
  http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1392
for an article describing an automated system proposed to be
implemented in the congressional offices in Washington DC.
Alternatively, search using the phrase
  congress considers evacuation tracking
to find several related articles on this issue.

[3] There are several related articles on employee dissatisfaction on
tracking. For example
  http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2004/0,4814,90518,00.html
describes several tracking methods, how unions (and some individuals)
can fight it, but non union (including exempt) are generally stuck
with the tracking.

From the references above and some similar searches, you may be able
to find information that can convince your management that the
tracking is causing resentment in the staff and is not beneficial from
an employee performance stand point. If you can make that work - fine.
If not, you have to decide if you'll put up with the tracking or if
its time to move on to a better employer.

  --Maniac

Thanks for the comments and taking the time to consider the issue.

It's not so much the tracking that bothers me, though I guess on a
certain level it does.  I mean there are cameras everywhere and we
swipe computerized badges on doors anyhow. I'm certainly not abusing
any work hours here. I work as prescribed.

I object to the fact that they are making ME login to a system to - in
effect- monitor myself. It has nothing to do with the job for which my
customer (th US governmnet) is being billed, and I have better things
to do. Also, I don't like the idea that should I get distracted by
work and forget (for example to log myself as "in" directly after
lunch), then when I do remember the hours will be wrong, and erroneous
conclusions will be drawn by management.  I am frequently stopped
during my lunch hour by people to discuss technical issues, this will
obviously affect the times recorded if I am kept away from returning
to my desk by other work issues.  If I'm stopped on my way in to the
office in the morning, it is going to appear that I showed up late,
etc

I really don't care if they assign someone to follow me around with a
notepad and a camera, although that would be ridiculous.

This program is not for billing purposes. I already do a timesheet
daily, and I have no objection to doing that either.

And yes, there are a lot of management trust issues at this site, and
yes it is up to me to decide whether or not I want to put up with this
or not.  I'm not a prima dona, but after 18 years in the profession,
and with certifications, and two degrees under my belt I find it
offensive that this is being forced into my daily work routine.

It amazing to me, also, that in an industry that requires as much
off-hours work time as the computer industry, we are shut out of all
of the protections provided to other unionized professions.

Maybe it is just me.  Thanks for the comments.