Is a Company Liable in any way if a non-exempt employee

ksitler

Is a Company liable in any way if a non-exempt employee leaves the premises during a paid break to run his/her own personal errand and gets into an accident or something else would happen?

joannie

I hate to answer a question with a question (not really), but why would you allow an employee off premises, but not on company business to remain on the clock? IMO, if they leave on personal business they should clock out, otherwise, I think you would have quite a bit of liability.

Paul in Cannon Beach

I think its definitely [U]possible[/U] that your company has liability here. In other words, I wouldn't feel comfortable about this scenario.

NaeNae55

I agree with both Joannie and Paul. If they are on the clock, you might be considered liable.

When we had timeclocks we always insisted that employees clock out before leaving the premises. Now they just fill out a time card (and usually at the end of the week), so we just let it go.

Good luck!

Nae

ACU Frank

That's one of the reasons our employees are not permitted to leave the premises during their breaks (except when they clock out for lunch). That also includes running to McDonalds to get your boss lunch... That was a tough one to kill!

davids

Generally, you would not be liable if the employee was not acting within the scope of his/her employment. However, if you were sued, you never know how it will turn out.

bethk

I was told by our WC carrier (in a past life) that if the employee gets hurt during a break and they're not clocked out, we would be liable. If that's true or not, I don't know, but after that we insisted they clock out for breaks.

cnghr

I know of a company who was being sued because their employee went out on an on-the-clock break and tried to kill somebody...the victim is saying that since the would-be murderer told the store he was going on a break, they should have been keeping tabs on his whereabouts. I thought that was pretty far-fetched, but I guess in the world of lawsuits there's no such thing!