Business running as usual? Not quite. But despite the COVID-19 outbreak and the responding shutdown, you still need to operate your business.
Whether in a regular economy or during times of uncertainty, you still need to know about Colorado’s Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards, an updated version of which just went into effect.
If you have any Colorado employees, then you need to know about Colorado’s Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards Order #36, effective March 16.
These standards include break and meal time rules that once only applied to retail/service, food/beverage, health/medical, and commercial support services but now cover all private sector work.
Let’s repeat that. COMPS Order #36 now covers all private sector work. This means that all non-exempt employees must be given dedicated and uninterrupted breaks of 10 minutes for every four hours worked. For shifts over five hours, non-exempt employees are required to take an uninterrupted, duty-free 30-minute meal period.
For employers who have deployed their non-exempt employees to work from home while we battle COVID-19, here are three things an employer can do to ensure compliance from your employees.
Message all exempt and non-exempt employees that breaks and meal periods are mandatory and must be uninterrupted and duty-free;
Require non-exempt employees to clock in and clock out for their break and meal periods to document they are taking them and reach out to those who are not documenting them daily.
Designate a supervisor to review time records to ensure non-exempt employees are taking their breaks as directed.
In addition, the COMPS Order #36 has a new and updated employment poster that must be posted in an area frequented by employees where it may be easily read during the workday and attached to the employer’s employee handbook. If you have non-exempt employees working from home, we recommend you email it to your employees as well.
— Stephanie Loughner and Becky DeCook are attorneys at Moye White.