Is it allowed for a foreman to clock in the whole crew?

The US Department of Labor says employers may use any timekeeping method they choose, as long as it is complete and accurate. A crew punch has to meet that standard for every person on it. Wage-and-hour rules also vary by state, so confirm your own practice with the Department of Labor, your state labor office or counsel.

When does a crew punch make sense?

When the crew starts work together at the same place and time, for example leaving the yard in one truck after loading it, or starting with a tailgate meeting at the job. It also helps when one crew member's phone is dead or left at home. It makes less sense when people arrive separately.

What is the main risk of a crew punch?

That the record says someone was working when they were not, or misses time when they were. Someone who is running late, who leaves early, or who started loading trucks before the foreman pressed the button can end up with the wrong hours. The foreman should confirm who is actually there before punching.

How does the crew punch work in Traffic OS?

A foreman can clock in the whole crew at once. Each crew member gets their own time entry with the time of the punch and the location of the foreman's phone, and anyone already on the clock is skipped rather than punched twice. Crew members can still clock in and out from their own phones, with GPS at each punch, and paid breaks are tracked on the entry.

Clocking In the Whole Crew: When One Punch for the Truck

Q: Are breaks paid?

Federal law does not require breaks. The Department of Labor says short rest breaks, usually 20 minutes or less, are counted as hours worked, while bona fide meal periods, typically 30 minutes or more with the employee completely relieved from duty, generally need not be paid. Some states require paid rest periods, so check your state's rules.

When it is reasonable for a foreman to clock in the whole crew at once, what can go wrong with a crew punch, what the US Department of Labor says about hours worked and records, and the habits that keep a crew punch accurate.

It is 5:30 in the yard. The truck is loaded, the arrow board is hitched, four people are standing at the tailgate. One left his phone charging at home. Another has 3 percent battery. The foreman has a phone, a full charge and the crew list. Pressing one button to clock in all four is the obvious move.

It often is the right move. It also changes who is responsible for each person's record, and that is worth thinking through before it becomes the habit.

What the rules ask of a time record

The US Department of Labor does not prescribe a method. Its recordkeeping fact sheet says: "Employers may use any timekeeping method they choose," and adds that "any timekeeping plan is acceptable as long as it is complete and accurate" (DOL Fact Sheet #21, Recordkeeping Requirements under the FLSA). Among the records it lists are the hours worked each day and the total hours worked each workweek.

So the question about a crew punch is not whether it is allowed in principle. It is whether the record it produces is complete and accurate for every person on it. The regulation itself contemplates group-level records in places: the basic time records employers must preserve are described as those "on which are entered the daily starting and stopping time of individual employees, or of separate work forces" (29 CFR 516.6). Whether a crew punch fits your situation is a question for the Department of Labor, your state labor office or counsel, not for this article.

When the workday actually starts

A crew punch is only as good as its timing. The Department of Labor defines the workday as running from when an employee begins their "principal activity" to when they stop it, and notes the workday "may therefore be longer than the employee's scheduled shift, hours, tour of duty, or production line time" (DOL Fact Sheet #22, Hours Worked under the FLSA).

Traffic control has a specific version of this problem. The regulation on travel says that where an employee "is required to report at a meeting place to receive instructions or to perform other work there, or to pick up and to carry tools, the travel from the designated place to the work place is part of the day's work" (29 CFR 785.38). It also says travel "from job site to job site during the workday, must be counted as hours worked."

Read that against a normal morning. If the crew loads cones and signs at the yard at 5:10 and the foreman clocks everyone in at 5:30 as the truck pulls out, twenty minutes of loading may be missing from four people's records. The punch should happen when the work starts, not when the truck leaves.

The regulations are also blunt about work that happens off the record. "Work not requested but suffered or permitted is work time" (29 CFR 785.11), and it is "the duty of the management to exercise its control and see that the work is not performed if it does not want it to be performed" (29 CFR 785.13). The time clock does not decide when work started. The work does.

When one punch for the crew makes sense

The crew starts together. Everyone is at the yard, the truck is being loaded, the work has begun for all of them at the same moment.

The day starts with a tailgate meeting at the job. The crew arrived together and the meeting is the first thing everyone does. See tailgate safety meetings for traffic control crews.

Someone cannot punch for themselves. A dead battery, a phone left at home, a new hire not yet set up. A crew punch is better than a handwritten time scribbled on a ticket later.

When it does not

People arrive separately. If two crew members drive their own vehicles and arrive at different times, one punch for everyone gives somebody the wrong start time.

Someone leaves early. A crew punch-out at the end of the day should not include the person who left at noon for an appointment. Punch them out individually when they leave.

Someone is not there. This is the obvious one, and the one that causes the worst trouble. A crew member who is running late should not be punched in with the crew because they are "on their way."

The Department of Labor's guidance on time clocks draws a useful line: "Minor differences between the clock records and actual hours worked cannot ordinarily be avoided, but major discrepancies should be discouraged since they raise a doubt as to the accuracy of the records of the hours actually worked" (29 CFR 785.48). A crew punch that is routinely twenty minutes off for one person is the kind of pattern that raises that doubt.

Habits that keep a crew punch accurate

Say the names out loud. Before punching, the foreman confirms who is physically there. Only those people go in.
Punch when work starts. If loading is work, the punch comes before loading.
Handle exceptions one at a time. Late arrivals and early departures get their own punch.
Let crew members see their own hours. Mistakes are found fastest by the person whose pay depends on them.
Correct with a reason. When a time entry has to change, record who changed it and why.
Keep the individual option open. Crew members who have a working phone should still be able to clock themselves in. The crew punch is a convenience, not the only path.

Breaks on a crew day

Breaks need the same care, especially when one person records them for others. The Department of Labor says plainly: "Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks" (DOL, Breaks and Meal Periods). When breaks are given, its hours-worked fact sheet says "rest periods of short duration, usually 20 minutes or less, are common in industry" and are counted as hours worked, while "bona fide meal periods (typically 30 minutes or more) generally need not be compensated as work time." For a meal period to be unpaid, "the employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purpose of eating regular meals" (DOL Fact Sheet #22). Ask whether a flagger who eats at the station, paddle in hand, has really been relieved from duty.

State law can add to this. The Department of Labor keeps a table of paid rest period requirements under state law, and a list of state labor offices. Wage-and-hour rules vary by state, so confirm your own practice with the Department of Labor, your state labor office or counsel. The overtime side is covered in overtime and FLSA basics for traffic control crews.

How the crew punch works in Traffic OS

In the Traffic OS time clock, a foreman can clock in the whole crew at once. Each crew member gets their own time entry, stamped with the time of the punch and the location of the foreman's phone, so the record shows where the crew was when the day started. Anyone already on the clock is skipped rather than punched twice. The foreman can clock the crew out the same way.

Crew members can still clock in and out from their own phones, with GPS at each punch, and check in and out of jobs. Breaks are started and ended on the time entry and recorded as paid break time.

For more on what a phone-based time clock does and does not prove, see GPS time clock for traffic control crews.

Clocking In the Whole Crew: When One Punch for the Truck Makes Sense