Should I get "on call" pay?

muddyl

Just wondered what peoples opinions are on this.

Where I work I am the sole security person and one of 3 key holders.

Every so often I get a phone call from the company that monitors the alarm and security system.
I can go a few weeks without a call, but I can also get several calls in one week (had 3 last night. 2am, 2,30am and 4am).
Most of the time they require no action, just to make a note of a monitoring issue. But sometimes I have to go out to check the property.
When I go out, I am supposed to get the time owed back at time and a half, so thats not so bad.

My issue is with the calls that require no action. Ok, so they tend to be short and easy. But they also tend to be in the small hours of the morning and my answering the phone tends
To disturb the baby which shares out room, often resulting in spending an hour getting him back to sleep. Gets frustrating.

Would you expect to get anything in return for doing this? As I remember, there was noting in my contract regarding being on call.

McKneff

Talk to your bss about it. He/she is the only one who can give you any answers.

Although it isnt in your contract was it explained at all to yu that you would be on call. Maybe it is already calculated into your salary.

agrinnall

There's no hard and fast answer, as McKneff says, it's something that you'll need to discuss with your boss. I have experience of both getting and not getting on call payment (sometimes with the same employer) - generally if it's an organised on call system, usually on a rota with other people, I would expect to get paid to be on that rota, but if it's an informal arrangement then I have done it for nothing.

If it isn't an expected part of your job, as agreed when you were either employed or first started to be the security person, and your boss won't pay you, then your only option may be to refuse to take the calls (which might require you to change your home number if that's where the calls are coming).

muddyl

Thanks for your input.
This was never mentioned at interview or anything, simply asked for my mobile number a while after I was taken on.
I doubt its in my salary as i'm only just over minimum wage.
There is no rota for on call. I'm first called every time. If there is no reply, the second on the list is my boss. I believe us to be the only two.
And I doubt he could do anything to my salary, too many people above him.

elsien

Change your sim card and tell them you haven't got a mobile any more?

paddedjohn

Dont answer your phone, when your boss asks why they had to take the call tell them you want paying extra to be on call but on a rota system. What happens if you are on a night out and you get a call out?

muddyl

I have actually started to ignore them at times.

We have two small children who dont yet sleep through the night. I have been getting up every night for the last 19 months. The other night was the first time they both did sleep through and i should have had a great night sleep.
Instead I got 3 calls to tell me the internet had gone down on site. Its 4am and the building is closed, who cares?!
I was furious and as such could not get back to sleep.

I know i shouldnt twist as at least i have a job when so many others out there dont. When everything is taken into account (benefits etc) i'm only something like £30 a week better off working full time than if i was unemployed.
I'm starting to think its not worth all the hassle as i have loads of other problems with where i work too. It never used to be like this a year ago, everything seems to have changed.

paddyrg

Talk nicely to your boss about it. If you get lots of calls you don't need to respond to from a monitoring service, it might be simple to give that service different instructions (eg if the internet goes down between 6pm and 7am, and doesn't recover, AND something else suspicious happens, then call) - but calls you have to take, log and forget are a waste of everybody's time! Make the monitoring service earn their money by following an idiot-proof checklist before calling, so they only call you with news. Stuff like internet blips can be emailed to the IT dept directly. Or maybe the service can text them to you, and you can make the logs in the morning?

It could well be your boss doesn't realise you're getting so many calls, and never will if yoyou don't mention it. If the above is not possible, how about suggesting a regular £2/call for logging, and he bills that back to the company? It might take some sorting out but he can add his markup, everybody wins.

getmore4less

Check the time you are doing this might add up enough to take you under min wage.

also look at getting called out and breaks before going back to work.

Perhaps rather than pay a min TOIL for each call say 30 mins(so 45 TOIL).

Googlewhacker

why is your boss not number one on the list and you number 2?

muddyl

Googlewhacker wrote: »

why is your boss not number one on the list and you number 2?

Because i'm supposed to be employed as security. But really i'm general dogs body, but only when it suits depending on peoples moods, if you get what I mean.