On Call pay

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hockeyoligist2

hockeyoligist2

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I live in SC, so I'm sure the pay is less than most states. I work industrial. I am on-call once every four weeks. We have guys begging to work the on-call because they have kids, extra bills, etc. I don't need the approximately $.43 per hour for being on call..... ($60 a week). We get paid the extra hours if we are called in, it is usually about 1AM during a storm. I like being able to relax, have a beer, visit friends, go to the grocery store, etc. We have just been required to do our on-call for the last 8 months. The "new boss" never took the on-call before his promotion, now he demands we take it. How would you deal with this situation? So far the guys that don't want to be on-call (including me) have just sucked it up and kept quite. I am at the point of quitting and probably will after my anniversary, a benchmark on my retirement.....


Bad day, Just venting!
 
hockeyoligist2 said:
. . . approximately $.43 per hour for being on call..... ($60 a week).
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I work that out as 20 hours a day for the week, or 24 hours for 6 of the days that week. I am guessing it is the later, and that you get Tuesday's off to recover from Monday Night Football. :grin:

Just out of curiosity, does this new boss get any additional pay for having crew members on call?
 
I was never employed at a job in my life where I wasn't on call. Continue to suck it up, I say. It's just part of this trade. You don't have to act like you're happy about it, but you do need to take your turns when it comes around until you're a boss.
 
I am not on call and work as a foreman for a large company. If I were to ever be called in, I would get double my usual pay per hour. Hasn't happened yet nor do I ever see it happening.
 
mdshunk said:
I was never employed at a job in my life where I wasn't on call. Continue to suck it up, I say. It's just part of this trade. You don't have to act like you're happy about it, but you do need to take your turns when it comes around until you're a boss.
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But if the company requires you to be on call... and they say you can't be more than 30 minutes from the plant, you can't drink, can't go to your daughter's out of town swim meet, etc. I don't know, seems there should be more compensation than 60 bucks a week.
 
charlie b said:

I work that out as 20 hours a day for the week, or 24 hours for 6 of the days that week. I am guessing it is the later, and that you get Tuesday's off to recover from Monday Night Football. :grin:

Just out of curiosity, does this new boss get any additional pay for having crew members on call?
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Maybe my math is bad.... OK, 16 hours a day X 5 days = 80 hours (working the other 8), all day and night Sat. and Sun. 48 hours. Thats 128 hours? $60 divided by 128= $.46875. Yep bad math on my part! I said $.43 My tax bracket is at least 25% so after taxes I get $.35156 per hour! LOL

mdshunk, I won't be the boss, I was offered it, been there done that, got the Plaque to prove it....Mantainance man of the year, in a worldwide company employing thousands of people. It is salary pay, I am too much of a doer not enough of a delegator (sp?). When I was the boss, I was making about $4 an hour, due to my work ethic and hyperness. :)
 
crossman said:
But if the company requires you to be on call... and they say you can't be more than 30 minutes from the plant, you can't drink, can't go to your daughter's out of town swim meet, etc. .....
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Actually, you can do many of those things, legally. You might want to check into the labor laws (Fair Labor Standards Act), since they are very clear, and just put your phone on call-forwarding to your cell phone.

An employee who is required to remain on call on the employer's premises is working while "on call." An employee who is required to remain on call at home, or who is allowed to leave a message where he/she can be reached, is not working (in most cases) while on call. Additional constraints on the employee's freedom could require this time to be compensated.


See section 101-710 of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, Subpart D, 551.431 Time spent on standby duty or in an on-call status.

Sec. 551.431 Time spent on standby duty or in an on-call status.

(a)(1) An employee is on duty, and time spent on standby duty is
hours of work if, for work-related reasons, the employee is restricted
by official order to a designated post of duty and is assigned to be in
a state of readiness to perform work with limitations on the employee's
activities so substantial that the employee cannot use the time
effectively for his or her own purposes. A finding that an employee's
activities are substantially limited may not be based on the fact that
an employee is
subject to restrictions necessary to ensure that the employee will be
able to perform his or her duties and responsibilities, such as
restrictions on alcohol consumption or use of certain medications.


About all anyone can legally limit you to on your on-call days are things that would assure your sobriety. Additional limits would require you to be compensated for every single hour that you were "on-call" and couldn't do what you wanted to.
 
We used to get an extra 50 bucks for being "on call" it happened about every 10 weeks or so due to the number of guys we had on service. usually you could get someone to "take your week" of you either didnt want it or were out of town. Holidays were hard to swap. Usually the single guys would trade Christmas for New Years. Thanksgiving was family day for the marrieds and hunting for the single guys.
 
Being on call goes both ways. I look forward to quite a few cold ones after the day is done. Although the fact of someone calling me when a team of electricians have failed somewhat excites me. Which is more comforting? I can't draw the line. "On call" should pay good $. I enjoy the challenge. Just call early enough!
 
Thanks Mark! Ever thought about lawyering? :) I printed it just in case! I'm not going to buck too much, I'm easy going, say yes sir a lot.


Quote "We used to get an extra 50 bucks for being "on call" it happened about every 10 weeks or so due to the number of guys we had on service. usually you could get someone to "take your week" of you either didnt want it or were out of town. Holidays were hard to swap. Usually the single guys would trade Christmas for New Years. Thanksgiving was family day for the marrieds and hunting for the single guys."

That "was" the way at work....... Now the boss is making us plan time off around our on-call weeks! I have a festival that I go to every year, the weekend after 4th of July, I put in for that week on Jan. 1st every year, he is saying I can't have it because that is my on-call week.....There was never a single problem. There was one guy that took every on-call week (six kids needs the money). When he went on vacation, needed off, Kids/wife sick (moments notice), holidays with his kids, I worked the holidays for him almost every year, everyone pitched in and covered that time, we were happy to have our time and to help him! No problems, everything smooth as silk!
 
I'd be curious to know if your empoyment hinges on answering/accepting these calls.

Years ago, when I worked on the railroad as an electrician, we were basically "on call" 24/7/365 - however, we had no obligation to either answer or accept the call out. We recieved no "extra" pay while "on call", but we were paid from the minute we agreed to accept the call until the job was done with a 4-hour minumum (at time-and-a-half). It was up to the man that accepted the call to decide he needed help (another man) on that call. The additional man was also payed from the word "yes".
 
celtic said:
I'd be curious to know if your empoyment hinges on answering/accepting these calls.

Years ago, when I worked on the railroad as an electrician, we were basically "on call" 24/7/365 - however, we had no obligation to either answer or accept the call out. We recieved no "extra" pay while "on call", but we were paid from the minute we agreed to accept the call until the job was done with a 4-hour minumum (at time-and-a-half). It was up to the man that accepted the call to decide he needed help (another man) on that call. The additional man was also payed from the word "yes".
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Yes, My employment hinges on answering the call. I have a hearing loss, the tones of a cell phone is in that range of my hearing loss. I can hear very well otherwise. Many people look at me and say, isn't your phone ringing? I was written up about 8 years ago because I didn't hear the phone ring. Now I wake up while I am on call dreaming the phone is ringing. Needless to say when I am on call I get very little sleep.
 
76nemo said:
Being on call goes both ways. I look forward to quite a few cold ones after the day is done. Although the fact of someone calling me when a team of electricians have failed somewhat excites me. Which is more comforting? I can't draw the line. "On call" should pay good $. I enjoy the challenge. Just call early enough!
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It is never early, never good weather. I get paid if I get a call and go in, if no one calls I get nothing extra.
 
hockeyoligist2 said:
Not sure, our policys have been changing by the hour lately!
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How can you play by the rules when you don't know the rules?
When you know the rules, you know just how far they can be bent w/o breaking them.
 
hockeyoligist2 said:
Thanks Mark! Ever thought about lawyering? :) I printed it just in case! I'm not going to buck too much, I'm easy going, say yes sir a lot.


Quote "We used to get an extra 50 bucks for being "on call" it happened about every 10 weeks or so due to the number of guys we had on service. usually you could get someone to "take your week" of you either didnt want it or were out of town. Holidays were hard to swap. Usually the single guys would trade Christmas for New Years. Thanksgiving was family day for the marrieds and hunting for the single guys."

That "was" the way at work....... Now the boss is making us plan time off around our on-call weeks! I have a festival that I go to every year, the weekend after 4th of July, I put in for that week on Jan. 1st every year, he is saying I can't have it because that is my on-call week.....There was never a single problem. There was one guy that took every on-call week (six kids needs the money). When he went on vacation, needed off, Kids/wife sick (moments notice), holidays with his kids, I worked the holidays for him almost every year, everyone pitched in and covered that time, we were happy to have our time and to help him! No problems, everything smooth as silk!
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I sure you are not the only on in the shop with this problem. Let the boss know your schedule and have him work around it. Maybe its time to start looking for a new boss.
 
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