Human Resource Blog

Timesheet Documentation

Hello -

I work for a home care company in Masachusetts and we are currently having compliance issues with our home health aides (on call, hourly employees) recording their time (we use a telephon system where they call in and out their times with the client’s telephone). What are the laws around paying these employees if they don’t provide us documentation to prove they were at the clients at the scheduled time or that they left the clients at the scheduled time. I was told we have to pay them based on what their original schedule was (i.e 8a-8p) if we don’t have any documentation - is this true? And if so, when is it okay NOT to pay an employee (i.e - if they call and say they worked 30 minutes longer but there is no documentation to prove it, do we have to pay them the extra 30 minutes?)?

Please advise and thank you in advance!

Jen

Probably what you need here is better enforcement of the reporting procedures, rather than a rundown on payroll laws. Frankly, your current system is just an invitation for payroll fraud and abuse, and may even be unlawful.

Under both federal and Massachusetts law, the employer is required to keep accurate payroll records on all non-exempt employees for at least three years. So unfortunately, when the employee fails to call in, the employer has violated the law, and continues to violate the law for three years.

The company may be guilty of fraud if they are billing clients for time that the aides are not actually working. If the company is partially reimbursed by public funds, then you would be defrauding the government and the taxpayers. At a minimum, the clients should be asked to sign the aides time sheet if they are physically able, and clients should be cautioned not to sign an inaccurate record.

If you (as the employer) know for a fact that the employee worked from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm on Tuesday, then you should pay her for that time. However, you are not required to accept the employees word for the time she arrived and departed. In fact, this system just invites abuse. The employee could well be arriving one hour late every day. Or, she could be arriving on time and leaving four hours early on a regular basis, because she knows she will be paid for her scheduled shift if she does not phone in.

Most employers would assume that if the employee does not report properly by phoning in and out, that the employee did not work at all. It would then be up to the employee to produce evidence that he or she did work that day.

Ideally, if the employee does not phone in within 15 minutes of her scheduled time, a supervisor should call the clients residence and speak to the employee, to verify that she is there. Supervisors should also be phoning the clients at random times, to verify that the employees are present and working. At a minimum, if the employee does not phone in, the supervisor should ask the client — not the employee — what hours the employee worked.

If an employee works 30 minutes past her scheduled shift, but failed to phone out, then yes, you need to pay her for that time. However, she can and should be disciplined or terminated for violating the reporting policy.

Anytime an employee fails to report on time, she should receive a written warning for not clocking in and out properly. Any employee who repeats this three times should be terminated. We realize it is difficult to fill unskilled healthcare positions, but in this economy it should be possible to find employees who will follow the most basic rules. Most employees will begin phoning in and out on a regular basis once they learn there are unpleasant consequences.

This is like asking employees at a factory to punch a time clock — it is a very, very simple request and anyone who cannot follow it, does not need a job.