I am on call for my company every third week. Because of this I am very limited as to what I can do on these weeks. I am not compensated for this time of limited personal options. Is my Connecticut based company required to compansate me for bring on call; and if so what are the minimum requirments?

If you are an exempt employee, you are not legally entitled to any additional compensation for being on call. If you are a nonexempt employee, it would depend on a number of factors, including how restricted your personal activities are, how often you are called, how soon after the call you need to be at the job site, things like that. Can you provide more details?

I am a non exempt employee. I need to respond to dispatch within 15 minutes, to the homeowner within 20 minutes, and must be in uniform heading to the job site within 20 minutes of contact with the homeowner. It is slow in the winter months, but in the summer I, on average respond to 10-15 calls per week. Out of the 10-15 calls 8-12 are only looking for information which can keep me on the phone approx. 10-15 minutes per call. I only receive pay if I go out on the call even if I spend an hour on the phone on any given week. If I do go anywhere personal I must take the work van (which is not insured to carry passangers). That means if my wife and I want to go out to dinner we must take separate vehicles. I can only go places that I know to have good cell phone reception, and must be within my service area (Hartford county). And, of course consumption of alcohol is prohibited. Please let me know if I've forgotten any prudent information, and thank you for your response.

It sounds like, with that quick of a turnaround expected, that the on-call time very well may be compensable. And even if it isn't, you must be paid for the time you spend on the phone providing "information"; that is clearly work time. You can confirm with the state Dept. of Labor, but it's very likely that they might agree with me (or not :rolleyes: ).

Thank you for your quick response. I guess it is worth looking into further. ;)

No problem. You caught me on my "I'm catching up" day. :D