Employer "on call" requirements.

[Abraham]

ELB,

You work for some good folks.

I neglected to mention in my story above, the corporation I worked for was a major one with very deep pockets...

[KD5NRH]

Went in the next day and told the state what we had found, and told them we were requesting that they have an electrician cut off that outlet, and of course the bureaucratic wheels then churned into motion, and it took a couple of months for them to decide it was ok to do so and to let a contract for the electrician and such, and every two weeks at 2am on Tuesday morning, I got the call, rolled over in bed, called them, told them how to reset their breaker, and got paid 4 hours pay to do so. And then they fixed it.

Mine was the client that would repair old equipment at 5+ times the cost of replacing it because repairs were an essential budget item, but replacements required all sorts of extra justification. What it usually boiled down to was ordering in a refurb printer, (listed only as "printer components" on the invoice so accounting wouldn't call it a replacement) then swapping the entire casings of the broken one and the refurb so that the serial number would stay the same, and sending the broken one back to the manufacturer with a special sticker they provided just for us so their refurb center wouldn't see the same SN they'd just sent out and list it as DOA.

The case swap took me about 20-30 minutes, but they had us bill it as 2-3 hours plus expedite fees "so it would look like a real repair." About $350 to "repair" a $60 (brand new replacement price with a full year warranty) inkjet printer.

[suthdj]

He is an hourly employee who is not being paid to be on call but they give him a company phone to hold on to for a week. He also is not being paid to take calls, he is given comp time and this time must be taken in the same week as to not go above 40hrs.

To me it seems he is on his time off the clock and has no obligation to anwser the phone. I don't see how the company could discipline or fire him for it either.

Sounds like my old job, I was on-call for 3 different teams sometimes that would lead to being on-call for 3 weeks I finally arranged it to all be at same time and just spent the day sitting around work making OT. But ya my employer was of the mentality do it or get fired.

[cb1000rider]

My only question about his situation would be the odd situation for comp-time and not going over 40 hours a week. A setup like that would be life disruptive, because you really can't make plans as you don't ever know when you're going to be off. That I would run by someone at the TX department of labor, I believe they field calls like this.

When he does get called what happens - does he have to come into the office? Does he have to travel? Is it remote? Again, if being on the pager means that his life is disrupted, that may be actionable.

Believe me when I say that they can fire him for not answering the phone. Doing so is perfectly legal in Texas. At-will employment.

I'm another "salary" employee who is essentially on call 24/7/365 - I don't get paid any more for working more. Even on vacation, I'm expected to maintain some availability... To truely go off-grid, I have to make arrangements for someone to cover. Welcome to the era of connectivity and technology.

[Jim Beaux]

Back in the "good ole days" at the Magnolia Oil (Mobil Oil) refinery in Beaumont, mule teams were the norm. The mules knew what the 5:00 whistle meant - and when it blew, despite any plans to work late & all efforts to stop them, they would call it a day and head for the stables.

Boss I cant work late. The mules refuse to stay over.