On Call Allowance

jim_walton

ThrowingStonesAtYou wrote: »

I get paid £2/hr for weekday standby and £3/hr for weekend standby. £4/hr for bank hols. £15/hr if i get called on a weekday or £25/hr if i get called on a weekend.

Any Vacancies at your place???

C_Mababejive

jim_walton wrote: »

Thats sounds correct..I'm on call every seven days from 1630 hours till 0800 hours the next day...This is working time and as such is subject to the working time directive.The WTD says you are entitled to eleven hours
uninterrupted rest in every 24 hours. Therefore if i get called at midnight and am out for 2 hours i do not start work the day after until 10.00 hours...Instead of my normal start time of 08.00 hours

Tnx...to clarify further, i would suggest that if the on call duty is such that a call would require immediate response and therefore prevent you from going about your normal activities, i.e effectively house arrest,then the total hours between 1630 and 0800 should all be counted as working hours whether called out or not. Payment is a separate issue.

BexInLondon

On-call allowances vary massively by industry and skill level. If you really want a definitive answer look out for the IDS (Income Data Services) report on this, as it will give you a lot of useful figures. I used to work as a pay consultant and the short answer is "how long is a piece of string?" I definitely recommend IDS!

jim_walton

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Tnx...to clarify further, i would suggest that if the on call duty is such that a call would require immediate response and therefore prevent you from going about your normal activities, i.e effectively house arrest,then the total hours between 1630 and 0800 should all be counted as working hours whether called out or not. Payment is a separate issue.

I used to worry about the things you are describing...However the way it actually pans out is different..I go caravaning when I'm on call and provided I get on site within an hour or so everything is ok and I work at a hospital.. More often than not I don't get called and I decided staying by the phone at home was a waste of time,( working time that is :rotfl:)

jennyred

funnily enough I am currently on call!!

within my PCT I get 4.5% on top of my salary for being on call 1 week in 6. On call means from when the managers from the other units go home (so approx 5.30pm) til 8am and from 5.30pm Friday til 8am Monday morning. If I get called out I get no extra money no matter how long I am out and no time off in lieu.
how ever 4.5% is a good amount if I dont get called out!!! I prefer this to being paid for each hour I have to be called out.

chainsaw

Time spent on call is working time according to several ECJ rulings the main ones being the Jaeger and SiMAP cases as well as several others. the Jaeger and SiMAP cases related to doctors on call in hospitals, in other words at their place of work. Employers have tried to claim these cases don't apply if you are on call at home as if some how being stuck in the house unable to leave it to vsit family or go shopping etc means you are free to do as you please when clearly you are not!

In the UK the Employment Appeals Tribunal case Mac Cartney v Oversley House Management along with other cases cleared the matter up. It stated that the important element was if you were obliged to be on call at a place determined by your employer. If so then that time is worked hours regardless of if you are in the work place, at home or anywhere else.

So for example if you can do pretty much what you want but just have to be contactable say by mobile phone then worked hours are only the ones from when you are contacted and asked to work. If you have to stay at the same location ready to respond to a call without delay then all call out hours are working time regardless of where that location is.

There was talk of introducing the concept of active and inactive call out time but this has not happened and the idea was dropped in April 2009

As I am sure all of the above is correct I wonder why Trade Unions have not picked up on this? Perhaps they are not up for the fight or perhaps its a present they are saving for a future Tory Government to deal with.

elsien

I work for a care voluntary organisation, and we do on-call for similar reason to that which you describe. We have to be able to get to work within about 15 minutes if needed.
We get paid £8 for a 24 hour period, with our normal hourly rate if we actually have to go in.
The organisation hates having to pay this (it's due to a specific contractual arrangement with the local authority.) Every where else in the country, the managers do the on-call and get paid nothing for doing it, as it's counted as part of their contract.

RobertoMoir

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Same here..though not in IT.

Mind you,would a percentage of your calls be remote admin jobs?

Most of the time you can resolve things remotely. It can be the very devil when you can't. At the end of the day its just like being at work when you're actually "dialed in" and when you're not, you still need to be near a computer that meets all the pre-requisites for your remote access method and good Internet access, so you're basically talking about being tied to your house... Not too bad for the "3am emergency" kinda on call, not so good for the "weekend rota" kinda on call.

smjxm09

Where I work the rates were for volunteering to be on a 1 week in 4 week rota was £164. If the rota was part of your contract then it was around £240. Each callout was paid at a minimum of 3 hours pay at time and a half with more money if it was late at night.

snapping_crocodile

The ward i used to work on were thinking of implementing an on-call rota for nights as it was getting incredibly busy, and short-staffed (got to love the NHS ) The plan was that it would be on a voluntary basis, and you would get £50 for being on-call for 12 hours overnight, and then you would get your normal hourly night rate if you had to come in