Wage/Hour Law Compliance for International Business Travelers and Guest Workers

by Don Dowling in Human Resources, Travel. Posted June 30, 2014

Most every country imposes wage/hour laws that regulate minimum wages and overtime pay as well as (in most countries) holiday pay, vacation pay, rest breaks and total hours worked. Usually these wage/hour laws reach not only locally hired staff but also inbound expatriates whose places of employment have become the host country. But the analysis as to which wage/hour laws apply gets murky as to business travelers and temporary guest workers—staff whose regular place of employment remains the home country but who spend time working abroad. Whose wage/hour laws apply to travelers working temporarily overseas?
This question is important in the United States, where wage/hour law compliance gets a lot of scrutiny and class actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act [FLSA] pose a real threat.

Don Dowling

http://www.klgates.com/

Don concentrates his practice on outbound international employment law as part of the firm’s Global Employer Solutions team. He advises multinational headquarters on cross-border employment law compliance, for example: +Global codes of conduct, whistleblowers hotlines, employee handbooks, HR policies and workplace safety codes +International restructurings, reductions-in-force and “change projects” +International compensation and benefits offerings +Global HR information systems and data privacy law compliance +Employment law matters in cross-border mergers, acquisitions and outsourcings +Globally-aligning individual employment agreements, restrictive covenants and employee intellectual property assignments +International internal investigations and cross-border HR compliance audits +Employing staff in new foreign countries and engaging overseas independent contractors +Cross-border collective representation, overseas works council consultations and cross-border employee representative strategies +Expatriate structuring, expatriate dismissals and expatriate duty of care

Wage/Hour Law Compliance for International Business Travelers and Guest Workers