by Jeffrey A. Cohen, Cohen & Richardson

Blackberrys, iPhones, Palms, Droids… the list goes on. Smartphones  are becoming a staple in everyday life and in many industries it is virtually expected by your customers that your employees will be able to access their email during the day regardless of whether they are in their office or not. Furthermore, it is often assumed that workers will have access to their email after hours, on weekends, on holidays and even when they are on vacation.

In the world of employment law there was a time when the claims De Jure typically involved issues surrounding work breaks, lunch breaks, travel time and expenses. Increasingly, however, plaintiff’s lawyers are looking at PDA usage as fodder for their latest claims strategy. We see this issue as particularly important for Internet and technology companies to pay special attention to because the level of employee connectivity tends to rank well above other industries.

The issue involves non-exempt, hourly employees and whether you have established a company policy that requires your employees to check their emails and/or respond to them in their off hours. Such a policy could open your company up to liability for this new brand of employment claim. One solution is not issuing PDAs to hourly employees at all. Another might be altering your employment manual to make it clear that checking and/or responding to emails after hours is purely voluntary and is not required by the company.

Regardless, we expect to see new litigation claims presented on this issue and eventually new legislation to deal with the issue.

Copyright (c) 2010 – JACO Product Development LLC – All Rights Reserved.

Jeffrey A. Cohen is the founder of InternetLitigators and a partner in the El Segundo, California office of Cohen & Richardson, LLP. Mr. Cohen can be reached at JCohen [at] InternetLitigators.com. Mr. Cohen’s practice is focused upon the representation of Internet and technology companies. The reader is cautioned that the information contained herein is not legal advice and is not a substitute for legal advice. There is no attorney client relationship created by this information.