My boss is now stating that our dept is going to be on call 24 hours a day. We will be taking turns with the on call duties, about 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. How is this supposed to be paid? My boss is stating that we will only be paid if we get a call, and for only that amount of time that the call lasts. This doesn't seem right to me. Any thoughts, advise or anything would be much appreciated.

Legally this is probably correct. The "on call" rules date back to the 1940s, well before cell phones and pagers. The governments and courts have generally very narrowly interrupted this rule. Worse, there is no "bright line" test, but rather all facts need to be examined against the rules currently in effect for the specific state and court jurisdictions. Not surprisingly, many of the court decisions seem to directly contradict each other. What pro-employee decisions exist involve a lot more then the employee having to answer the cell phone or pager when it rings. They tend to involve things like the employee having to report to work within 15 of being called. If you look hard enough you can probably find a court decision that says what you want it to say. Of course the employer can also find 10-100 court decisions that say what they want it to say since most court decisions and federal DOL opinions tend to run that way.

One last point. Assuming you are a Non-Exempt employee, you are legally paid based on actual hours worked. This would include work done away from home, such as when on call actually occurs. Exempt Salaried employees on the other hand are never due extra money for being on call, since legally the salary covers any and all hours worked including overtime.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_785/29CFR785.17.htm