UPCOMING FLOOR VOTE ON SB 47
The coronavirus has resulted in many changes to Ohio’s workforce, but perhaps the biggest change is the increase in the prevalence of hourly workers performing their work from home. Having hourly employees working from home in unsupervised settings presents many challenges to employers including the increased risk of failing to pay a proper overtime wage which may result in costly wage and hour litigation.
Senate Bill 47 seeks to address this issue by amending Ohio’s overtime statute, so that employees have an incentive to properly record the hours they worked while also preventing employers from facing unreasonable litigation alleging they failed to properly compensate an employee for their time despite the employer having no knowledge the work was performed.
Likewise, Senate Bill 47 codifies into Ohio law a US Supreme Court overtime doctrine which states that when the working time at issue concerns only a few seconds or minutes of work beyond the scheduled working hours then the time need not be compensated.
The Ohio Chamber believes the amendments to Ohio’s overtime statute made by Senate Bill 47 modernizes the statute to reflect the realities of Ohio’s 21st Century workforce where employers are counting on their hourly employees to properly record the hours they work since many of these employees are now able to complete their job duties in an unsupervised setting.
