Should People be paid for being "On Call?"

[Julian Delphiki]

They should be paid.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

we should be paid for taking call..... just think bout it this way, for nurses especially in surgery, we have to take care of every joe smo that comes in with a ruptured appendix or bad gall bladder broken leg and the likes. Some one has to do it and i dont know a lot of kind hearted people that will volunteer to come in to save anyones life. and when we are on call we cant go further then a 30 minute response from where we work and we get calls all hours of the day. Not to mention we have to wake up and show up for our regular shift the next or same day no matter how long they have had us there for a call in

[Mrs. Tuberski]

I guess my point is that i have given up my things i can do for the amount of time i am on call to devote it to the hospital. Cant drink or go anyware with out the fear of having to go into work. for that saccrifice we should be paid. Tia i think u shouold look into a differnt agency to work for, most agencies here in sa pay u folks for taking call and it not at the measly 2.50 an hour the hospital pays its like 5 bucks here.

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Zkribbler

Richelieu 00 When you're on call, are you on call for 8 hours/day, 24 hours/day, or something else?

It's 24 hrs a day - 7 days a week. I get paid for being available and then i charge however long it takes me to solve the problem with a minimum of 1 hour if i can solve it from home or a minimum of 4 hours if i have to drive in to work.

[Krill]

OK, this is just plain wrong. What are the arguments for making someone perform work and not get paid to do it again? Because that is all this BS "On Call" is. The employee is performing a service for the employer; providing backup in case of emergency; it can vary in the case of pure analytical problem solving where the employee does not have to be in the room, and nursing where the employee has to be right there, but the idea is the same.

Arguments about wether the minimum wage should apply are quite valid though...if someone earns minimum wage for the job should they earn the exact amount for being "On Call"? I doubt it...but then I'm probably an extremely liberal in reagards to employment law compared to some in teh US...

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Wiglaf

Being unable to booze up and go to Jamaca does not constitute working unless you are a communist.

[Kidlicious]

I'm essentially on call all day at the office. Especially until April. I get about 1 - 2 clients a day. That's not much different than being at home. So yea, someone at home should get paid too.

[Az]

I've been thinking about this myself a couple of days ago, when a friend of mine was 'on call' for a shift as a bartender.

Yes, we were sitting around watching TV. yes, we were free, but only to an extent. We didn't travel to a different city, though there was a great party waiting for us.

[Wezil]

Due to travel I work odd "shifts" and I may finish my shift midday if I started early. I remain "on call" for the remainder of the business day for which I recieve no pay unless I have to actually do something more than a 30 second phone call.

[Lancer]

Pay on call people! A waitress for example who is on call in case the place gets busy is a direct benefit in that her workplace can cut one worker because she is staying close to a phone. So the workplace can share the savings a bit for her duty.

[Ben Kenobi]

They also gave me, yesterday, a 52" HDTV.

You got room for it?

Seriously, excellent deal.

[Ben Kenobi]

we should be paid for taking call..... just think bout it this way, for nurses especially in surgery, we have to take care of every joe smo that comes in with a ruptured appendix or bad gall bladder broken leg and the likes.

Even if it's at 2am! I'd hate that part of the job if I were a nurse. It would be very difficult for me to set it up so that I had an alarm that would wake me up if I was paged.

Being on call is a real hassle, and folks should get compensated for the demand to be available 24/7 in case of an emergency.

Not to mention we have to wake up and show up for our regular shift the next or same day no matter how long they have had us there for a call in

Yep, don't know how you nurses manage to do it day out and day in.

[The Mad Monk]

Re: Re: Re: Should People be paid for being "On Call?"

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly


Right. But there's no law; it sounds like it's a private contract.

That's right, and they negotiated what they negotiated.

That said, I wouldn't agree to any "On call" situation unless some form of compensation were attached; the form of the compensation dosen't really matter, could be a higher salary or hourly rate, overtime, or a fee schedule . Most "On call" jobs have extra compensation built in, whether it's expressly noted or not.

[The Mad Monk]

When I worked in a QC lab, I was "on call" when we were expecting an oil barge to come in over the holiday. My compensation was four hours of overtime for what amounted to a half hour of work.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Az
I've been thinking about this myself a couple of days ago, when a friend of mine was 'on call' for a shift as a bartender.

Yes, we were sitting around watching TV. yes, we were free, but only to an extent. We didn't travel to a different city, though there was a great party waiting for us.

I am not sure i'd consider those both to be the same. I've worked in restaurants, and 'on call' there means they aren't sure if they'll need you or not so they tell you to check in at a certain point, and you're doing it because you want the extra money. I've never seen anyone have difficulty being taken off of 'on call' in that environment before... while for a doctor or somesuch (or in the OP's case), it's a requirement for keeping the job. Perhaps bars work differently where you are, though...