Holiday Pay

[oldmanford]

I am employed in Louisiana, and have been with the same parish funded agency for about 9 months. Just recently, I was told that while I have been paid for holidays that I didn't work, I would no longer get that pay. I am an on-call full time employee, and it has been mentioned that everyone else in the office will continue to be paid for the holidays that they don't work, but myself and the other employee with my positon would not. How does this make sense?

[LConnell]

Paid Holidays

Is it that you and the other employee are on-call and the others are not? Or, are you in a different job classification than the others? Are you and the other employee non-exempt and the others are exempt?

The reason I ask is that differences between job classifications are legal, as long as the reason is not for discriminatory or other illegal reasons.

[oldmanford]

There are only the two of us who work on-call. We are on call every other day, and every other weekend. That isn't enough, though, to make 40 hours, so we work in the office as well. We also have a different job than the others. The other employees get paid for the holidays that they don't work, but we do not. The main reason for this is because whenever holidays come, we are getting paid for the 8 hours we don't work (we don't get to claim any call we recieve during this time, as we would then be getting paid twice for the time, and we don't get any special time and a half pay like many other on-call employees receive). This throws off the schedule and makes it more likely that we will go into overtime. Hopefully this make it easier for you to answer my question. If not, please post any other questions you may have so that I can try to get this changed back.

[LConnell]

Different Classification

Is it that you and the other person have a different job than the others?

[oldmanford]

Yes, the two of us have different jobs than the others.

[LConnell]

Legal Differences

Then it is legal for them to do as they have said, unless the differences in the jobs is in name only.

[oldmanford]

If it is legal for them to not pay us for hours that we don't work on holidays, do they only have to pay us regular for time that we do work on holidays? For example, if everyone is off for Fourth of July, and I work 9 hours on call that day, do they only have to pay me for those 9 hours, or should they pay time and a half?

[LConnell]

Working on a Holiday

You must be paid for time worked. However, being on-call is not considered as working time unless you have to do things such as remaining on the employer's premises.