In New York, Can an employer give you a pager and tell you that you are on call 24/7 and that you have to come into work if called? Your only paid if you come in and not for being on call. Which means staying in the area and no drinking while you are on call.

Thanks!

Based on what was said, this is legal under federal law. Your state however is not my state, so I will let someone else address NY specific rules (if any).

From The Payroll Source Book:
"Employees who must be on-call on the employer's premises or close enough to seriously curtail their use of the time for their own purposes must be paid for the time spent on-call. But employees who merely have to leave word where they can be reached are not working while on call. W-H Reg. 29 CFR 785-17).

Agree with DAW. If you ARE called, how long do you have to show up?

It Could be any amount of time. It all depends on the problem to be solved. I finnaly got them to pay a min of 4 hours ST whenever you are called out. But my question is being on call 24/7 every 4 weeks with no compensation for prividing that coverage.

Thanks!

That's why I asked the question. When you are called, how soon after the call do you need to be at the job location?

ASAP, You are expected to respond immediatly.

Is "immediately", 30 minutes, one hour, 2 hours? "ASAP" is subjective. Do you have to go into the job site when called, or can you solve the problem over the phone or via computer?

I'm not trying to be difficult, honest, but there is a reason I'm asking.

This is a hands on maintanence position. When your called something is broken. You can't fix it remotely. You are expected to drop what you are doing and travel to the site that has called. Worse case I can remember, I was in the middle of a sail boat race, got paged, came in and traveled to the site. I got paid from when the pager went off to when I returned. But again, I'm providing a service (coverage) to the company as a non exempt employee. During that week I have to be within a resonable distance to respond. IE not leave the county.

Thanks for all your time

I'm still not of the opinion that the stand-by time is compensable. Having to remain in the vicinity and not being able to drink alcohol are not, in and of themselves, enough to make the time compensable.

And, besides, they are paying 4 hours when you ARE called in, even though that's more than the law requires. I'd have a tendency to leave it alone and here's why: if you file a claim with the state DOL and they DO determine the time is compensable (and I'm not at all sure the would), I'd bet the employer would eliminate the 4-hour minimum.

Your choice, I guess.

Thanks for you time and knowledgs on this!

Dennis