Is my company doing something illegal?

[Kenji4861]

As part of my job, I get to be "oncall" now and then.

Oncall meaning, I get to carry around a pager during and outside of work and be near a computer at all times. Last year, I was oncall 1/4 of the year.. it really gets you locked down.. not freely being able to go out on weekends or even for dinner and of coarse sometimes not able to sleep.

Yet, my work expects me to show up to work everyday and work like normal.

I have a friend at AT&T where he has to be oncall once in a while.. but for everyday he is oncall, he gets a day off. I also heard another say, they just get paid extra for the oncall days.

My work does not. Is this breaking any sort of law? Should I be compensated for being oncall?

 

[Kenji4861]

My co-worker talked to the manager about it and he was told how it's a dynamic company and employees need to be able to handle dynamic tasks to help grow the company.

 

[BrownTown]

I dunno, my dad has to wear a pager like that often because he is a dose assessor in case of a nuclear meltdown at one of TVAs plants, so if something happens he has to be on call to figure out where all the radiation is gonna end up.

 

[mobobuff]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
I dunno, my dad has to wear a pager like that often because he is a dose assessor in case of a nuclear meltdown at one of TVAs plants, so if something happens he has to be on call to figure out where all the radiation is gonna end up.

Yeah, but how many times a week does he have a nuclear meltdown?

I figure you should be compensated.

 

[Ulfhednar]

Nothing illegal about being on-call, especially if it's in your contract.

 

[MichaelD]

It really depends on what your Job Description says and how fairly the workload is distributed amongst ALL the people in your shop.

If your job description's last line says "And other duties as may be required" then you're pretty much screwed.

My shop also has a duty pager (cell phone actually) that rotates amongst all the techs in the shop. I get to carry it for a week approximately every 4-5 weeks. Sometimes I'll take it over a weekend for one of the guys so he can go out of town and vice versa; we cover for each other.

But, my shop ALSO expects you to be at work bright and early and ready to work even if you got called at 3:00AM and were at work fixing the issue until 5:00AM. <--That, I think is a crock of horse manure.

But, since I'm salaried and have some seniority, if I'm there a few hours overnight, I just email my boss (who sits in the same office as I do) and I just say "Was here fixing XYZ until 4:00AM...I'll be in sometime this morning." And it's too bad if he doesn't like it. I'm only human and need to sleep too!

 

[Kenji4861]

Thanks guys, I just looked at the job description.. and it states nothing about be oncall and also doesn't have anything like "and other duties"..

Also we have had workers that were hired that were surprised to hear they had to wear a pager.

 

[I4AT]

My last job required at least one crew to be on call every weekend. We did highway/state road infrastructure maintenance, some jobs just require that somebody be available at all times. They made the whole process very clear to us during the interview though.

There weren't really any benefits to it, you'd get paid for at least 1 hours worth of work regardless, so the only time it was really like a bonus was if you got called out for something really simple. Didn't even count towards OT, but most guys are happy just to get more hours.

I highly doubt there's anything illegal about it, just bad practice for them to hire people and be like oh hey guess what, you're on call b!tch here's your pager. Plus you can always try to work something out on the basis that it was never explained you were required to be on call, and if they don't wanna play just quit if it bothers you.

 

[Boo Boo]

contact l&i

 

[TheGizmo]

Originally posted by: I4AT
My last job required at least one crew to be on call every weekend. We did highway/state road infrastructure maintenance, some jobs just require that somebody be available at all times. They made the whole process very clear to us during the interview though.

There weren't really any benefits to it, you'd get paid for at least 1 hours worth of work regardless, so the only time it was really like a bonus was if you got called out for something really simple. Didn't even count towards OT, but most guys are happy just to get more hours.

I highly doubt there's anything illegal about it, just bad practice for them to hire people and be like oh hey guess what, you're on call b!tch here's your pager. Plus you can always try to work something out on the basis that it was never explained you were required to be on call, and if they don't wanna play just quit if it bothers you.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: Kenji4861
Thanks guys, I just looked at the job description.. and it states nothing about be oncall and also doesn't have anything like "and other duties"..

Also we have had workers that were hired that were surprised to hear they had to wear a pager.

If you don't like it... find a new job. Or find out what happens when you ignore the pager. Or you could do the logical thing and talk to your boss and ask for more money or find out how you get out of doing this... or attempt to work out an arrangement like everyone else has that has posted here where they take the duties once a month for a week or something.

See last line of sig for details.

 

[Sunner]

We had on call duty at my last job.
I usually had one week every 4'th or 5'th weeks.

We all signed a separate contract for this besides our employment contracts, though for all new employees in our dept, this contract was mandatory.
We'd get paid though, we got an hourly pay simply for having the on call, pretty much something to cover for the trouble of pretty much giving up your social life for a week.
On top of that we'd get an hourly wage for active time spent on solving problems and such.

As for the day after, there were no rules about that really, just common sense.
No one was retarded enough to expect someone that had been awake all night working on whatever to come in at 08:00 the day after, we'd just fire off a mail saying "Hey, I spent 01:00 to 05:00 fixing xyz problem, I'll be in around lunch" to the boss, and all would be fine.

Personally, unless it was explicitly stated before I signed the initial contract, and with a base salary that reflected the effort and personal time lost on my part, I'd never agree to on call duty without extra payment.
If they pay me to, I work. If they don't pay me, I don't work, simple.

 

[Roguestar]

Tell that to doctors. I doubt they'd have much sympathy. I suggest you carefully study your contract and if you're not happy with it, renegotiate or resign.

 

[Roguestar]

~~~***Forum errors = double post! GG!***~~~

 

[Spineshank]

Technically my job im not supposed to be on call but in a way I technically am. Though im not required to carry my pager around with me unless im told otherwise.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I work "standby" every third weekend. If there's work, I do it...but either way I get paid. you should be getting some kind of compensation for being on call. I get 1 hour pay, for every three hours of standby I work...and that doesn't include the pay i receive if i actually go do work.

Originally posted by: Roguestar
Tell that to doctors. I doubt they'd have much sympathy. I suggest you carefully study your contract and if you're not happy with it, renegotiate or resign.

great idea.

 

[RossGr]

We get paid 2hrs (Double Time) for every 12 hrs on call... I am hourly, not salaried.

 

[Eeezee]

You have to at least get paid for those hours.

Try to get overtime or something from your boss, that'll show em!

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: RossGr
We get paid 2hrs (Double Time) for every 12 hrs on call... I am hourly, not salaried.

You get paid for 2 hours after working twelve? Or do you just get 2 free hours even if you don't get called in?

 

[Kelemvor]

Most companies compensate you in some way when you are on call. Might be an extra pay per page you get, an extra amount for the time you work on the calls, etc. If they don't do anything, then I'd start making up my own comp time and come in late, leave early, etc depending on just how much on call work you actually do.

 

[rudder]

My work has asked me to be available on Saturdays. For nothing extra I might add. So I said sure. Now quess the odd of them actually contacting me on a Saturday if they needed me... 0.0000000000000000000012% probability.

 

[yuppiejr]

If you are non-exempt (hourly) any time you spend actually doing work you must be compensated for, though according to the HR guy I asked "on-call" time doesn't count if you are simply being available. Most of the time I've seen salaried folks required to be on-call there is no extra compensation for the extra hours or inconvenience though most reasonable employers will offer some form of flex time if off-clock hours are excessive.

Most of the salaried folks I know who are on-call are highly compensated SME's in their respective technology area so the occasional on-call gig goes with the paycheck. The rest, salaried or hourly, are usually second-level up-and-comers or folks who've peaked in their careers and just deal with the on-call gig in exchange for keeping their job.

If you don't like it tell your boss and see what you can work out, or quit and go work somewhere else - pretty easy solutions.

 

[xanis]

It seems like you should be getting compensated, but it all depends on what your job description says. If it says something to the effect of "other duties as assigned," there's really nothing you can do about it.

 

[j00fek]

im on call from time to time and dont get an extra day off for that

 

[KK]

just ignore the pager if it upsets you.