It’s a question you need to know the answer to. Our friends at Bent Ericksen & Associates, Tim Twigg and Rebecca Boartfield, recently published this Q & A on Oct 23rd for Dentistry IQ. We get asked this same question often by employees and employers, making this timely publication a must share for our readers.
QUESTION: Should staff be compensated for participating in webinars at their homes, on their own time?
ANSWER: Work-related tasks, regardless of where they occur, must be paid for by the employer.
So, the question becomes: are the webinars work-related? In most cases, they are. Webinars generally fall under continuing education events and thus are subject to certain rules for compensation that are prescribed by state and/or federal laws. Whether or not you have to pay for continuing education depends on whether or not the following four criteria are true:
1. Attendance is outside regular working hours
2. Attendance is voluntary
3. The training session or meeting is not directly related to an employee’s current job
4. The employee performs no productive work during the training.
If the answer to all of these criteria is “yes,” then you do not have to pay for the continuing education event (in this case webinars). If even one of these criteria is answered with a “no,” then you have to pay for the continuing education event and you have to pay for the time watching and/or participating in the webinars, even while at home.
Read more here: http://www.dentistryiq.com/articles/2015/10/human-resources-questions-for-dentists-what-to-do-with-staff-who-were-caught-red-handed.html
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