The bring-your-own-device trend that has slowly been adopted by enterprises and businesses on a global scale is of obvious benefit to companies, as workers can work remotely through mobile devices, but the off-the-clock hours could begin to come back and bite employers. A report titled the Workplace Class Action Litigation Report created for the tenth year in a row by Seyfarth Shaw L.L.P. cites the increased use of mobile devices as perhaps a bane for employers caught in labor litigation.

While wage-and-hour litigation can be trite in practice, modern technologies keep it busy. The report forecasts that not only will wage-and-hour litigation continue strongly into 2014, but it could escalate in fervor and intensity. The argument surrounding paid time for use of mobile devices off the clock is just one aspect of new litigation tactics that could come into play.

Seyfarth's Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., co-chair of its Class Action Defense group and author of the Report stated, “In the past two years, we have seen a combination of Supreme Court decisions help create a defensive barrier for employers in class action cases. Enough time has passed, however, that plaintiff lawyers have begun to breach this barrier with new theories and approaches and, combined with increasing and aggressive government enforcement litigation, employers may once again find themselves facing bet-the-company-type class actions in 2014.”