In recent weeks SRxA’s Word on Health has run a number of stories about iPads. For the record, we don’t have shares in Apple, nor do we even have iPads, though we’re keeping our fingers crossed that Father Christmas might bring us one this year. This latest iPad related post is particularly interesting as it could potentially change the pharmaceutical industry forever.
Last week, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) sales reps were handed a lesson in “be careful what you wish for.” If they win their ongoing U.S. Supreme Court appeal over overtime pay, their employers may well make them slaves to their iPads by introducing factory worker style rules for clocking in and out.
For our readers unfamiliar with the case, hundreds of GSK ’s pharmaceutical sales reps signed on to a class action lawsuit demanding overtime pay. The suit was filed in 2006 by lead plaintiff Anthony Coultrip, who worked for GSK between 2003 and 2005 and hinges on a counter-intuitive definition of what a sales rep actually is. Under federal labor law, salespersons who earn commissions are exempt from protections requiring overtime pay for extra hours worked. Drug reps, however, don’t actually “sell” drugs – they merely promote them and the sale occurs later at the pharmacy. The GSK reps argue that makes them “promotion workers” whose work is so routine that they ought to get overtime.
Anyway…back to the story. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Mr Coultrip and his colleagues, and institutes overtime pay, life for the nation’s 90,000 drug reps could change dramatically. Instead of the relative independence and limited accountability that they enjoy today, the life of a pharma sales rep could become a nightmare of check-ins, surveillance, time-sheets and electronic monitoring.
Hardly surprising given that a huge sum of money is at stake here. Since the litigation began, at least 19 pharmaceutical companies have been sued by sales reps demanding overtime pay.
To try to minimize overtime payment liability, industry analysts predict that clocking in and out of work via an iPad will soon become the most important act of a rep’s day. Failure to clock in and out may result in loss of pay for that period of time. Repeatedly “forgetting to clock in or out” may result in disciplinary action including the possibility of termination.
Taking this to extremes, industry insiders predict a scenario in which:
- Reps will be GPS tracked to verify time and location for all work related time during the work day.
- The same tracking will also be used to verify mileage for business versus personal use of the company car.
- Any rep planning to take more than two hours of personal time during a workday may have to get prior approval for a vacation day.
- Drug reps work will not be allowed to work more than 8 hours per day or more than 40 hours per week without prior written approval from their manager.
- If reps receive emergency customer calls, outside of their work day hours, they will have to adjust subsequent work time so as not to exceed the 40 hours per week maximum.
- They will be required to clock out and back in for their mandatory 15 minute breaks, in the morning and afternoon. They will not be allowed to skip breaks or to do work related activities during breaks.
- Because all work related travel time will count against the 8 hour work day, most company meetings will be by tele- or video-conference to avoid travel.
However, not all reps believe they deserve overtime. On cafepharma , the anonymous bulletin board for drug industry gossip, some have suggested that reps don’t work the hours they are meant to work, let alone qualify for overtime.
What’s better? Is overtime pay worth the loss of freedom and Draconian restrictions? As always, we’d love to hear from you.
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