Late night call outs

Hard_Up_Hester

Hi
I'm looking for some advice for my husband. Four times in the last 3 weeks hubby has received phone calls at around midnight because the intruder alert is sounding at work. This means getting up & dressed & driving to work, it's not far but takes an hour or 2 each time what with the drive, checking the buildings & resetting the alarm. He has now been told that he will not be paid for these callouts but can take time in lieu. We feel this is unfair & wondered if anyone else in a similar position could advise on what payment should be expected.
TIA
Hester

scooby088

Can your husband refuse to do it? Is it in his contract to do it? Any payment for the time on these call outs have stopped and he will be given time off in lieu. Best to ask his employer or just stop taking the calls whenever they may occur.

Hard_Up_Hester

Last night he didn't answer the 1st 3 call, but the calls kept coming, eventually we were so wide awake that he went anyway.

Lokolo_2

Is it for a store? I am on the callout list for my employer, a store. The store policy is you get paid at double time for attending a callout, so once when it took 1hr to attend a callout I got paid 2hrs at basic rate by the company as overtime.

I think TOIL is a bit unfair if he prefers overtime, but as someone said above check your contract to see if it is a requirement that you attend these calls, if not he could ask to be taken off the list!

amiehall

I am on the call list for my employer but, as I like your husband am not paid for my time, I have the number saved into my phone so I know who is calling and I don't answer. Good luck trying to discipline someone for not answering their phone. Remember when you attend the site, you're incurring all your travel costs and taking time off in lieu doesn't get you your petrol money back.

Takeaway_Addict

Hard_Up_Hester wrote: »

Hi
I'm looking for some advice for my husband. Four times in the last 3 weeks hubby has received phone calls at around midnight because the intruder alert is sounding at work. This means getting up & dressed & driving to work, it's not far but takes an hour or 2 each time what with the drive, checking the buildings & resetting the alarm. He has now been told that he will not be paid for these callouts but can take time in lieu. We feel this is unfair & wondered if anyone else in a similar position could advise on what payment should be expected.
TIA
Hester

I would firstly work out what is causing the alarm and get it sorted, then I would make sure the split is as fair as possible but thirdly, if its my job I would do it.

As for the person saying don't answer the phone, you can do this but if you suddenly stop doing call-outs totally it will be noted and you prospects of promotion within the company are likely to be reduced.

When did he start working for them?

Hard_Up_Hester

The call out is not part of his contract, his previous boss did the bulk of the call out as he lived closest & hubby did just a few a year for which he was paid overtime, the new boss doesn't want to do any call outs so has given hubby's number out to the security company, it is a large site & each call out is for a different reason, ie an open window, a poster falling off the wall , a spider on the PIR. There is no way all these can be sorted to negate the need for call outs.
He has worked for the company for 6 years, also it is difficult to be woken up at midnight, go to work for an hour or 2, come home & then get up at 5:30 to go to work.

Takeaway_Addict

Hard_Up_Hester wrote: »

The call out is not part of his contract, his previous boss did the bulk of the call out as he lived closest & hubby did just a few a year for which he was paid overtime, the new boss doesn't want to do any call outs so has given hubby's number out to the security company, it is a large site & each call out is for a different reason, ie an open window, a poster falling off the wall , a spider on the PIR. There is no way all these can be sorted to negate the need for call outs.
He has worked for the company for 6 years, also it is difficult to be woken up at midnight, go to work for an hour or 2, come home & then get up at 5:30 to go to work.

Then he needs to look at raising a grievance to either reduce the number of times he does get called out or to look at a different remuneration. And call outs are very likely part of his remit now as he didn't object when he started doing them.

Also, large sites still can go months without a false call out.

amiehall

Wow! How have so many false alarms happened in the past three weeks. I wasn't joking about it being my personal policy to ignore my alarm company calling but we have 5 people registered with the alarm company and it appears your husband is the only one so I suppose his manager is going to notice if the alarm is still ringing when people turn up to work in the morning... Also our alarm goes off by accident probably about once or twice a year.

He needs to sit down with his line manager and make very clear that, while he is willing to share this responsibility, he doesn't want to be the sole person on call (is he not allowed to have a glass of wine in the evening in case he has to drive to work to deal with this?). In addition, some additional pay is surely owed, at least enough to cover his travel costs.

If his manager doesn't want to attend the call outs (I don't blame him!), he's going to have to pay someone enough to motivate them to do it.

patman99

If they are calling his mobile, then turn it off when you go to bed. If they are calling your landline, then unplug it (or put every handset on silent if option is there).

If they can't get hold of your hubby, then they will have to call the boss.

ValHaller

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Then he needs to look at raising a grievance to either reduce the number of times he does get called out or to look at a different remuneration. And call outs are very likely part of his remit now as he didn't object when he started doing them.

Also, large sites still can go months without a false call out.

Callouts may be part of his remit now under the terms on which he has done them with the previous boss - ie holiday cover and overtime paid. He should stop doing them now if he does not want to do them overtime unpaid.

As for phoning him, s the mobile his or company provided?