on call pay

[benkik3]

Hi everyone. I am new to this forum. Anyway I work in the HVAC field and twice a month it is my turn to be on call for emergency service. Emergency service starts mon-fri after 6pm and Sat after 4pm and sunday anytime of day. My question is should I be getting paid for being on call and not actually working? I cannot have a beer, go to movies, do anything because if I get a call I must respond withing 1 hour and policy is that if I can have home owner wait til normal business hours then I do not have to go but if it cannot wait then I do have to go.

[Pattymd]

I doubt that having to respond to a call within one hour would "severely restrict" your activities enough to consider your on-call time compensable. No, you can't have a beer. But, with a cell phone/pager, you can go to the store, go to a movie, go to dinner, visit friends, etc.

[benkik3]

ok. I was just wondering.

[damlam]

so what if you had no phone or pager?

[robb71]

Originally Posted by damlam

so what if you had no phone or pager?

Your employer could require you to purchase one as a condition of employment. In most cases, the employer will provide an on-call phone or pager; but there is no law that specfically requires it. If you are employed under an enforeceable employment contract or collective bargaining agreement, the terms of said agreement may contain language explaining this responsibility.

[tauist]

I was a Unix Admin II at a company that had the system alarms set way too tight. I was required to carry the pager for my week in the on-call rotation. During this time I was paged every 2-4 min.s. Most of the pages were nothing, however I had to get up and look at them anyway. This prohibited me from doing anything while on-call except sitting in front of my laptop watching the pages go by. I asked both the temp agency and my employer what should I put down on my timesheet for these days and nights. I was told by the temp agency that I should charge the same way perminant employees charge. I was the only hourly person ever to take the on-call rotation, so no one knew or responded. After all that I found a document that outlined that an hourly employee should put down 2 hours for every 8 hour period of on-call. I filled out the timesheets to reflect that and was "let go" the next week. Also I had submitted the timesheet for the last on-call rotation and was paied for that one. Now that are saying thay will not paty the 2 hours for all the time I spent in front of the computer. I believe a page every 2-4 min.s constitutes being at work and thus I should get paied for ALL the hours. Can I file a wage claim with the labor board or should I get a lawyer? BTW the temp agency wants me to give them all the pages for all the time I was on-call. The company let me go so I do not have access anymore and they will not give me the records. Please help!!

Thanks
Tauist

[ElleMD]

Please remove the names of the companies or the moderator will.


The first step is reporting what times you worked to your actual employer, the temp agency. That is who is cutting your paycheck. Yes, you could be let go for inaccurately filling out the timesheet. That is legal. Whether the while 8 hours were compensable or not, the employer may insist the timesheet is accurate. If you had to sit at a computer for 8 hours and monitor pages every 2 minutes, then the 8 hours would be considered hours worked.

[tauist]

I was very carful about reporting the correct times and dates. I wasn't fired I was "laied off". The question is if someone is on-call for a week at a time and gets paged every 2-4 mins during the entire week, then is pay due the employee for the entire time on-call? I was at home for these times. I talked to the agency and they want proof that I did work on thosetimes. Since I am no longer there and the fact that there are thousands of pages involved I can't get records of the all the pages. I do however have a screenshot of one day of pages. There were over 300 in one day. I think I need to file a wage claim, but I am not sure if I should consult an lawyer first. What do you think?

Originally Posted by ElleMD

Please remove the names of the companies or the moderator will.


The first step is reporting what times you worked to your actual employer, the temp agency. That is who is cutting your paycheck. Yes, you could be let go for inaccurately filling out the timesheet. That is legal. Whether the while 8 hours were compensable or not, the employer may insist the timesheet is accurate. If you had to sit at a computer for 8 hours and monitor pages every 2 minutes, then the 8 hours would be considered hours worked.

[Pattymd]

A call every 2-4 minutes IS working. No doubt in my mind. There is no need for an attorney to file a wage claim. You can file your claim with the Texas Workforce Commission. That's what they're there for. Free.