Thanks to new technology, many employees can get their work done anytime and anywhere. That sounds great to managers — but it could get the company sued.

When bosses encourage or require nonexempt employees to read e-mail and do other work off the clock — and it goes unpaid — that will likely lead to a costly court battle.

Take this recent lawsuit:

Last month, three sales associates filed a suit against T-Mobile USA for back wages and unpaid overtime. They claim they’re owed pay for time spent responding to e-mails after work hours.

The employees were paid hourly and not exempt from overtime pay. But they were given company-issued smartphones and regularly received e-mails and text messages from customers and supervisors. According to company policy, they had to respond to them, whether or not they were on the clock.

When they reported those hours, management told them they wouldn’t be paid for the time and that they should expect to respond to messages as part of the company’s “standard business practices.”

Do the employees have a case?

The biggest strike against T-Mobile is that the employees were allegedly required to respond to messages in a timely manner. However, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) says all work and overtime by nonexempts needs to be paid for even when it’s voluntary — and even when extra is against company policy.

The law does say “de minimis” work (defined as work taking only “a few seconds or minutes”) can be unpaid. That means, for example, that an employee could quickly read and respond to some e-mail without any trouble.

But the definition of “de minimis” is murky — some courts have ruled that work taking as little as ten minutes needs to be paid.

Regardless, IT should always be wary of granting mobile devices to nonexempt workers.

Tags: e-mail, FLSA, overtime, smartphone