Non-exempt waiting to work on weekends

dcaudill

We have an ee who bills out trucks during the week as part of her regular job. On occasion we have a need to bill out a truck on the weekend after it has been loaded either late on Friday or early on Saturday. She is told in advance we will be billing out the truck on Saturday and she will need to come in a do it, but we will only need her for approximately 15 to 30 minutes; therefore, she is waiting to come in, after shipping calls her, to bill out the truck. She has done this a couple of times this year and now she wants to know if we can compensate her in some way for coming in such a short time on the weekend. She is asking this because we told her today she will need to come in this Saturday. Our owner says we pay her overtime and she does not need to be compensated any other way. I say it is going beyond the call of duty to wait at home -until we call - to do 15 minutes of work. I want to know what each of you think of this situation and how can I be more convincing to the owner to give her a little extra. I am suggesting just round out the hour in overtime for her. This would take care of travel time and time worked. Does this apply under the "engaged to wait" or the "waiting to be engaged" clause of overtime for non-exempt employees? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you in advance, DC

NaeNae55

I believe this comes under the heading of on-call pay. Employees engaged to wait as opposed to waiting to be engaged should be compensated (though not necessarily at her regular rate of pay). We don't have on-call pay here, so I am not familiar with all the details. I am sure another forumite will chime in, but if not try looking on-call pay up in the regs.

Good luck!

Nae

POTATO

The questions you need to ask/clarify are:

1. Have you issued her a pager/cell phone and she is "free" to roam and do other activities while waiting to be called (go shopping, see a movie, etc.) or is she stuck at home waiting for your call.

2. Is she required to report to work immediately following the call or can she report to work when it is convenient (wants to see a movie, will report to work when movie is over)?

If she has to stay home to receive your call or is unable to roam free, my "opinion" is she is truly on-call and needs to be compensated for that time waiting for your call. If she is free to do personal tasks and can report to work "whenever" on Saturday, she only needs to be compensated for the time she is actually at work.

We have Saturday loading as well...if there is only one truck, we just have our loader/shipping take care of the billing - they are already on the clock. This may not be a solution for you..not sure of "why" this person is the only one who can bill.

Good Luck!!