I have worked in the Information Technology department at a company in Nebraska for 8 years. I am an hourly employee, as are all of our IT Staff. Four months ago the company hired a new I.T. Supervisor who is now changing the way that everything in the department is done.

The company has fairly standard On-Call policies that we have been following since I started in the department. We have 9 people in the department who rotate the On-Call duties. The On-Call person is paid $100 “stand-by” pay for being ready to come in at any time, plus whatever extra hours are worked.

The new boss has decided that, in addition to the On-Call rotation, all IT employees must be constantly available to come into work 24 hours a day 7 days a week. If we want to drink alcohol or go out of town (on our own time, on the weekend) we must first ask permission and it has to be approved by the new supervisor. Even though everyone is now technically On-Call at all times, we are not paid any On-Call pay unless we are actually called to come in.

Is it lawful to force a department of hourly employees to be on-call 24/7 without compensation?

Frankly, given the circumstances you describe I think that's going to be too situation-specific to answer on a message board. I would suggest you ask your question of the state DOL.