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As of July 6th, there will be no more submitting limited travel time or off the clock email responses as overtime for Ohio hourly workers. This new law specifically defines what tasks workers can and cannot submit as overtime hours.
Under the law, as detailed in Senate Bill 47, workers will now have to opt-in to join a case for unpaid wages.
According to WDTN, this means that unless you are asked to do a certain task by your boss or you receive written instruction to work off the clock, overtime hours will not constitute pay.
“I think, if we're talking about that portion, there is not a gigantic change for hourly workers, because tasks that their employer asks them to do, those are still going to be compensable, just like they would be under the prior version of the law. So I don't think that there's going to be huge change there,” Andrew Biller of Biller & Kimble, LLC told WBNS.
Lawmakers described positives of the bill being that there will be one less item for businesses and employees to keep track of, and the Buckeye State will experience less lawsuits pertaining to unpaid time.
“This bill reduces the burden on employees and employers of having to keep track of minimal minutes of un-required time outside of normal work hours,” Bob Peterson of Senate District 17 shared in a release. “It also reduces the likelihood of liability and lawsuits arising from unpaid overtime.”