Brett Bartlett Published in Employer's Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act "Remote Access to Work: A Risk to the Exempt Status of Salaried Employees"

Brett Bartlett’s article, “Remote Access to Work: A Risk to the Exempt Status of Salaried Employees,” was published in the March 2008 issue of Employer’s Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Brett’s article examines potential implications of the proliferation of BlackBerries, mobile phones and remote access e-mail with regard to an employee’s exempt status. He notes that the “U. S. Department of Labor’s regulations under the FLSA provide certain exceptions to the salary basis rule that permit employees to receive less than their predetermined salary amount under certain circumstances.” Brett then outlines the two most common exceptions, including an employee making the choice not to work for a full day and a bona fide “plan, policy or practice of providing compensation for illness” that replaces the pay the employee would have lost for his absence. However, Brett notes that both of these common exceptions “presume that employees will not perform any work on their days off.” He therefore concludes that “salaried exempt employees who are online on their days off place their exempt status at risk.”