You're a savvy employer. Your timekeeping policies are clear. Your employees know that they are required to report all of their work time. Employees sign off on their time records each week. You even provide a procedure for employees to confidentially report any improper actions by their supervisors. Your records are complete, organized, and show that you've fully compensated your employees for all reported work hours. But what happens when an employee claims that his supervisor instructed him not to report overtime unless it was authorized in advance, and to record unpaid lunches even on days that he worked through his lunch break? As a recent ruling from a federal district court in Idaho illustrates, even following best practices with respect to recordkeeping compliance won't necessarily preclude an employee from taking a claim for unpaid overtime to a jury.

In Covert v. ITT Educational Services, Inc. d/b/a ITT Technical Insitute, plaintiff Robert Covert worked for ITT as a recruiter / admissions representative from November 2007 through March 2010. Covert alleged that he frequently worked over his lunch hour and beyond his scheduled shift, but that he and his co-workers were told by their supervisors to keep track of overtime separately from regular hours, and that they would receive "comp time"* for the overtime hours. If overtime hours were reported on a timecard, Covert claimed that his supervisors instructed him to edit his time card to remove the overtime. If he did not, his supervisors would not sign the timecard and he would not be paid. ITT moved for summary judgment, pointing out that...