How do you comp ees for pager duty/on-call?

pmaher

We have 3 employees that management wants to put on pager duty (they are HVAC & Boiler ees) and they are nonexempt. He's thinking of coinciding it with their beiweekly pay periods. They probably would have to respond within 15 to 30 minutes. My previous experience was that management carried the pagers but this would not suffice in this situation.

Does this become an overtime situation? Are they paid OT for the hours they carry the pager or just for the time spent responding to a call? I believe the FLSA rules state if they are NOT free to go about living a normal life, the compensation becomes OT.

Help!!!!

POPEYE

We do not currently have this scenario but in a past life, the EE was given a flat amount for carrying the pager for the week-end. It was their responsibility to report within an hour or make arrangements with another qualified EE to cover the call. They were then compensated hourly (OT if over 40) from the time the call was received until the emergency work was completed. I don't think that procedure was ever challenged by the DOL but we were assured by Legal Counsel that we were OK.

pmaher

Thanks...that's what I remember doing in the past too. I think that as long as the pay does not go below the minimum wage, we'd be okay.

Pork

PMAHER: Remember that the "service call" begins from his/her location, when received. He/she is no longer free and is on duty from their resident or wherever and are entitled to mileage, if they use their personal vehicle to get to and from the call site. That is the reason we have management answer all calls and he/she makes the determination if a labor service person is needed or required to answer the call. We hold management responsible for all service calls and the cost associated with the issue! We do not pay them just to carry a pager! Pork

Nat

At past employer, we had hourly employees who were on-call. As long as they don't have to sit by the telephone and are free to go about their normal lives you don't have to compensate them for just being on-call. We paid our guys 1 hour travel time and then they punched in when they got to the worksite. If it was over 40 hours then it became overtime. We never had a problem with this. You might want to check with your states Wage and Hour to be safe. At current employer, only management staff are on-call and they make the decision on whether hourly staff needs to be called in or not.