Employees Sue Over Boot-Time Paycuts

Posted 11/24/08 at 10:29:00 AM | by Paul Lilly

If you thought blue screens and other unexpected fatal system errors were annoying, how would you feel if your employer docked your paycheck every time you had to reboot your PC? This frightening practice appears to be a growing trend, one which has prompted several lawsuits by angered employees who are suddenly being itemized for the time they spend booting a PC.

According to The National Law Journal, several lawsuits have been filed in the past year in which employees claim they were not paid for the time they spent booting up and shutting down their PC at the start and end of each work day. And these aren't necessarily smaller companies looking to cut corners, either. Some of the accused include AT&T, UnitedHealth Group, and Cigna Corp.

"These are hourly employees who are not making much more than minimum wage,"said Mark Thierman, a Las Vegas-based lawyer who has experience filing computer-booting lawsuits. "There's a good half-hour a day that they're not being paid for. It adds up."

Thierman notes that even though booting up and shutting down a PC takes time, employees are still working, whether it be wading through paperwork or making phone calls. But management-side attorney Richard Rosenblatt sees it a different way. According to Rosenblatt, he's observed first hand employees engaging in non-work activities while waiting for their PC to boot.

"They go have a smoke, talk to friends, get coffee -- they're not working, and all they've done at that point is press a button to power up the computer, enter in a keyword," Rosenblatt said.

Are employers justified in docking pay based on startup and shutdown times? Hit the jump and sound off.

Image Credit: Flickr PaulSherman

COMMENTS:: 17
TAGS:: law, business, paycuts

Comments

COMMENTS

Hello? How about a simple defrag...
Submitted by TechRedhead on Mon, 2008-12-15 17:11

Is this a joke? Whet are the IT Managers doing sleeping on the job? If boot ups are taking this long, then obviously the MFT file is fragmented to hell and back. Just defrag. Check out Diskeeper. It's automatic. No lawyers required!

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As a talented IT
Submitted by anonuser on Tue, 2008-11-25 09:11

As a talented IT professional, I wouldn't be long for my company if they thought they would dock me time for this... The management making these decisions would do well to understand that they are alienating their workforce by cutting their pay. Few things make people more bitter than a smaller paycheck for the same work. They need to implement a solution to the root of the problem, rather than charging employees for some perceived cost. Whether they instruct employees to hibernate their computers rather than shut down or put in a time clock machine that's always on instead of using their personal PCs, they have to find a better solution.

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i support the workers
Submitted by lifeafterbeats on Mon, 2008-11-24 22:23

once a worker is required to be in a certain facility than the worker is on the company's time and not his own. if the company requires people to be there before or after they are providing productivity than the company needs to look at how it can be ready to recieve productivity from it's workers the minute they show up.

i consider myself to be on company time the minute i am no longer going about my business the way i would if i did not have to go work for the company.

i treat people who work for me the same way. if i'm not ready for them to get to work than it's my fault.

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definately not fair for the workers
Submitted by Queenof1 on Mon, 2008-11-24 18:30

I had a job where my phone was my time clock. When I punched in, I had to be ready to take the first call. That means my pc had to be booted AND any programs that I needed had to be ready and loaded. So guess what? This was done on MY time. I didn't get paid to boot my pc / programs for WORK. I didn't necessarily agree with that, and now I'm in a different department at the same company, one that does not require me to take phone calls.

I do not think pay should be docked if the pc is not working properly. However, I do think that the employess should be "ready" to work when the pc comes back online, not outside on a smoke break or milling about aimlessly. And yes, the problem is not the workers, it's the computers and IT should be on it.

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A use for instant on...
Submitted by winmaster on Mon, 2008-11-24 17:05

I hear people complaining about instant on features all the time. They say: What kind of spoiled brat can't wait a few seconds for their computer to boot up. Well, the answer to that is the kind of "spoiled brat" who has a day of productivity to get over with. When a computer boots, the company is spending money on electricty while said computer is busy loading files in a useless state. Instant on/boot is not necessary in homes, anybody can wait 5 minutes to check their personal e-mail, but buisness and schools really could benefit from computers that utilize it. This entire lawsuit would be nonexistant if these computers booted at the push of a button. If software companies like Microsoft had any brains, they would develope and perfect instant boot software and market it to businesses. And if buisness had any brains and could afford said software, they would buy it. Until instant on software becomes available, businesses should buy new PC's with lots of dirt-cheap RAM and downgrade them to Windows 2000. If a computer can run Vista decent, 2000 should boot in seconds.

Schools should take advantage of this too. Whenever I have to use my school's Mac's, i spend 15 minutes at the beginning of class waiting for them to boot and "home sync" my user account and 5 minutes at the end of class waiting for them to log out, "home sync" again, and shut down. That's 20 minutes of valuable class time I spend waiting for those damn Mac's to boot. Then I have to take my work home as homework because I ran out of class time.

I guess this is a rant in defense of instant boot more than a comment on this article, but I thought it would be approate to post it here.

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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

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and people wonder why there
Submitted by NoCtrl on Mon, 2008-11-24 16:12

and people wonder why there are unions...

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no joke...
Submitted by ApoX-911 on Mon, 2008-11-24 15:23

I can lament with these people. I currently am in a position where I HAVE to clock in via a PC. Now granted our machines are constantly running, but the network they run on is horrible. Just to punch the clock I have to log in, wait for all the apps to load (good 3 to 5 minutes), start a 'systems' app, login to said 'systems' app, navigate to 'time clock', punch my numbers, wait for the machine to grab my information, press enter, wait for it to process, then smile and explain why i am late after it says 'punch accepted'

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How long is their boot time???
Submitted by YoshiHNS on Mon, 2008-11-24 15:18

I'm working on a pretty slow computer loaded with all the good ole OEM bloatware, and it doesn't take more than 2 minutes to boot and be useful. Pretty much I get in to work, drop my stuff off, hit the power button, go get some hot water for tea, come back, and get to work.

If people are taking >20 min break "waiting for the computer to boot" then either IT needs to implement a system to boot the computers before work begins, or people are just making an excuse to work less while still getting paid. Here's a thought. Get to work BEFORE you're supposed to start, and instead of hitting the power button at start time, hit it when you get in. Then again, i'm one of those people who don't mind putting in an honest day of work.

Don't take me as siding for business, just bringing up a possible flip side. I don't think you should get docked for boot-up time IF it is the computer's fault for an extraordinarily long time to boot.

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no joke
Submitted by metric_inch on Mon, 2008-11-24 13:57

I believe the problem is that the employees need to punch in using software on the PC.
PC not on, not able to punch in.
The problem with taking 15-30 minutes to boot up.
Is some BOFH copying the users documents over to the PC each time it boots up? Maybe a complete virus scan before the user can log in?

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If you are at work at the
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Mon, 2008-11-24 13:54

If you are at work at the beginning of your shift at the managements appointed time to start work then that is when your pay starts. You get paid for every minute that you are on duty. That is from the start of your shift minus unpaid breaks and lunches until the end of your shift that time again being set by management. You are entitled to be paid for every minute that you are on the clock.

Hell I'm a city bus driver. I'm on the extra board. I'm scheduled to come to the garage everyday at different times. I'm guarenteed 8hours a day. I clock in and sign the show up list. Then I get myself a coffee or soda and a snack and sit and sometimes sleep on one of the two leather couches in front of the TV or play pool in the pool room or work out in the work out room. My job is to be ready to drive the bus if a driver that has a regular rte fails to show up for his/her work. If I sit on the couch or end up driving the bus I get paid the same.

These people deserve to get paid and the companies are ripping them off. Perhaps upper management wouldn't be so quick to rip people off if they would spend a day in production.

There was a show on PBS that had company presidents and CEO's working in the production level posistions for a week. The Presidents and CEO's then used the knowledge to improve the working environment for their employees while at the same time increasing productivity. It was a win/win.

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This is F-ing ridiculous. If
Submitted by atomaweapon on Mon, 2008-11-24 13:20

This is F-ing ridiculous. If i had deductions on my paycheck for PC boottime I would be outta there. What kind of depressing work environment must that be to have PC troubles and get your pay docked? This is one lawsuit I support.

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"On the one hand...on the other hand..."
Submitted by Morichalion on Mon, 2008-11-24 12:17

On the one hand, folks to take as much as they can get for as little as they can give. From even an overnight retail manager's point of view, one will notice all kinds of examples of folks taking time to do pretty much everything other than work in the first few minutes (or first hour) of the day. Talking to friends, doing school work, reading-for-pleasure, ect. Attempting to recoup that loss is something that everyone who finds themselves in the position of being "in-charge" thinks about. Sometimes they come up with good ideas, sometimes not.

On the other hand, folks will only do what they're asked, which makes this a management issue. If they're noticing that folks are halting work while allowing their machines to reboot, they should provide other work for the employees to work on. I'm unsure of how such offices are run, but surely they can find a better solution than, "Oops! Your computer's booting up slow! PAY DEDUCTION!" How can someone or some corporation NOT expect a lawsuit after creating such a policy?

The world was ruled by religion, and they call it "The Dark Ages"

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There are other jobs...
Submitted by bloodgain on Mon, 2008-11-24 10:31

Frankly, this is something the employees are agreeing to put up with.

If they are "not making much more than minimum wage", then there are many other places where they can get the same wage. Vote against it by leaving -- it might not make it better for the current set of employees, but eventually the company will give up on such a petty tactic.

Go make the same wage somewhere else, and get some widely-available financial aid to go to technical school or community college and get a certification or Associate's Degree. Then you can make a good living and not have to put up with penny-pinching companies that are trying to pay as little as possible. When you're making $7/hr, you don't have a lot of choice in careers, but there's free money to be had to learn a trade.

I know that's not for everyone, and I am glad they are sticking up for themselves. I just think there are easier ways to do this when you're being paid peanuts -- get your peanuts from the next guy.

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Fix the problem, not the symptom
Submitted by icebird on Mon, 2008-11-24 10:25

How about instead of docking pay, get IT in there to provide a solution. Wipe out all the BS in everyone's startup items, optimize other settings to speed up boot time, or send out Wake-on-LAN packets at 6am.

Either way, if the PC belongs to the company, this is a cost of operation. Just like sorting through mail (either type) or reading memos, this is part of the daily routine that prepares employees for the workday.

If will fight to the death ANYONE who suggests that getting coffee is not a critical part of beginning a day of work. :-) Just ban coffee from the jobsite and then see how much value you get from your hourly workers. :-P

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No Doubt
Submitted by Kazabet on Mon, 2008-11-24 11:39

I think it's time for the employees to start billing out their boot time to IT for any programs loading on startup. For example, Anti-Virus. Well, that's not a big deal to me as a minimum wage worker, that's IT's problem. If they want to run their software on my time, they better be paying me for it.

What a crock. Next they're going to start billing their employees for everytime a caretaker empties their trash bin. Maybe a toilet toll will be next.

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only so much
Submitted by Caboose on Mon, 2008-11-24 11:21

There's only so much you can do to speed up a computer's boot-time. They could add SSD drives to all PC', but then that increases cost, but even then, that'll only do so much...

-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-

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