Anyone who has ever had to deal with an old PC when working knows that some devices can take a long time to boot — offering the perfect break to make a coffee or use the bathroom. However, what is unusual is the fact that this interval became a central point in a lawsuit filed against Bank of America.
A collective lawsuit initiated by several employees of the institution claims that it deducted hundreds of thousands of hours of pay because of this. This is because the company did not consider the interval necessary to turn on machines, start software and carry out other essential processes as working time.
According to Tava Martin, the employee leading the action against the company, she doesn’t want to pay for the time needed to carry out everyday processeswithout which tasks cannot be accomplished. This involves PC boot times, unlocking encrypted drivers, authentication processes, connecting to VPNs and launching specialized software.
Booting PCs and other processes required a lot of time from employees
In the lawsuit against Bank of America, employees claim that all processes required by the company took up to 30 minutes to complete. It was only after them that it became possible to access the company’s systems, which were responsible for recording hours worked.
The process could take even longer if the PCs encountered a problem when booting. To make the situation more complicated, it could be necessary to redo all the steps if the system decided to disconnect a user — which usually happened automatically during lunch breaks.
In addition to having to do the logins and verification steps every day, employees also had to perform the reverse processes at the end of their workdays. For security reasons, it was necessary to manually log off all software, as well as ensure that the machines used were safely turned off.
In the United States, a decision from the Department of Labor, dated 2008, recognizes that the time required to boot a PC, as well as the other steps described in the process, are part of a work routine. However, this does not necessarily mean an immediate victory for Martin — everything will depend on whether the responsible judge decides whether these tasks that Bank of America does not want to pay for were essential to carrying out the work required of its employees.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
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Source: https://www.adrenaline.com.br/hardware/tempo-de-boot-de-pcs-vira-ponto-central-em-processo-contra-bank-of-america/
