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(Editor’s note: This piece originally ran in the May 26, 2011, issue of the Briefly Legal PDX e-newsletter)

Local labor and employment law attorneys are a bit skeptical about a new app recently introduced by the U.S. Department of Labor. The app, compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch, is a timesheet that allows employees to independently track the hours they work and determine the wages they are owed.

The free app is available through iTunes in both English and Spanish, and the DOL hopes to expand its compatibility to include Android and BlackBerry. It currently allows users to track regular work hours, break time and overtime hours. The DOL plans to account for tips, commissions, bonuses, deductions, holiday and weekend pay, and shift differentials in future upgrades.

鈥淭his new technology is significant because, instead of relying on their employers’ records, workers now can keep their own records,鈥� the DOL states in a press release touting the new app. 鈥淭his information could prove invaluable during a Wage and Hour Division investigation when an employer has failed to maintain accurate employment records.鈥�

That’s a cause of concern for labor and employment law attorneys like Clarence Belnavis, a partner at Portland-based Fisher & Phillips. Belnavis and some of his colleagues worry that the app is a means for the DOL to encourage wage and hour cases against employers.

鈥淭he DOL is really energized to pursue wage and hour claims against employers, and this app will do more harm than good potentially because it creates more opportunities for misunderstandings,鈥� Belnavis says.

He points out that employees could start the app before they actually get to work or use it during the day when they are attending to personal matters.

鈥淚t’s like the saying, 鈥楪arbarge in, garbage out,’鈥� he says. 鈥淭he app is only as good as what the employee chooses to record, and it’s more a question of when they start and stop the app than when they actually worked.鈥�

Amy Angel, a partner at Barran Liebman in Portland, says that while the app may make it more convenient for employees to track their own hours, it doesn’t define compensable time for users.

鈥淭hat is always a concern when employees are keeping their own records because an employee may not understand what constitutes work time and what doesn’t,鈥� she says. As an example, some employees may believe their commute is work time when it isn’t.

Ultimately, Angel and Belnavis point out, it’s the responsibility of employers to accurately track their employees’ work hours. We’ll probably soon see an app for that鈥�.