Employer On Call Question

Luniz

Hi all,

I wasn't really sure where to post this, as the CAB forum appears to not allow new threads. hopefully you knowledgeable people can help. It's a question around the rules and regulations concerning on-call rules. I cannot seem to find anything online about it (or maybe my search criteria is just wrong). I wondered if it is possible for an employer to force you to be on call whilst on annual leave? This is obviously different from general week to week processes when you're actually in work anyway, because (as I see it) this is rest time, official holiday from work. In terms of the official contract, it's a loose wording which essentially says the process is required to support business processes, but nothing specific in terms of when, which I guess could work to both side's benefit in these cases. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

engineer_amy

Hi Luniz
I cant offer any expert knowledge on this, just an opinion, that I agree with you, annual leave means time away from the business and the business should make sure there is sufficient cover in place with other members of staff to be on call while you are on leave. I know if I booked time off and my boss told me I had to be on call, he would be looking for a new employee.


I don't mind answering my mobile when im off to answer the odd question or give advice, but being official on call is a different matter

Paully232000

I cannot offer anything legal, but i concur with the above.
I would be looking for another job, and also saying to my employer I am either on holiday or working (whether that be on-call or not). I wouldn't be wasting my annual leave entitlement by working.
I would say boss either asks you to cancel your annual leave, or you are not on-call when you are off work.

Luniz

Well I'm definitely in agreement. The problem that would arise in this instance is that it's related to the Christmas period where everyone is on annual leave. So unfortunately it's not a simple case of arranging others to cover. I wondered whether there was a case for stating that, it cover is needed, people need to be in work, rather than expecting cover whilst people are on holiday.

Edit: exactly that Paully. I'm just curious where it stood legally. I can't find any rules on the internet.

Paully232000

Luniz wrote: »

Well I'm definitely in agreement. The problem that would arise in this instance is that it's related to the Christmas period where everyone is on annual leave. So unfortunately it's not a simple case of arranging others to cover. I wondered whether there was a case for stating that, it cover is needed, people need to be in work, rather than expecting cover whilst people are on holiday.

Edit: exactly that Paully. I'm just curious where it stood legally. I can't find any rules on the internet.

thats pretty poor management allowing everyone to be on annual leave when cover is needed. When i worked in a place that needed cover we worked it between the whole team before anyone was allowed time off for xmas.

lazer

My old work was like this - we were all off between Christmas and the new year.
However - as there were only 6 of us that could approve payments, we were all "on-call" if anything urgent came up as needing payment.


I think legalities of it depend on how many holidays you get - if you get more than the legal minimum (28 days) then it may be acceptable for you to be "on-call" for any days over and above the 28.

JReacher1

If it's only a one off because it's christmas and all staff are on annual holiday then I don't think it's an issue.

If they always expect you to be on call when you're on annual leave then it is an issue as you'll never get any proper holiday.

If the whole staff is on annual leave then what chance is there of anyone calling you?

It sounds like your company has allowed the whole office to be off for Christmas with the proviso that if something serious goes wrong they may call you. It doesn't sound that unfair?

Paully232000

JReacher1 wrote: »

If it's only a one off because it's christmas and all staff are on annual holiday then I don't think it's an issue.

If they always expect you to be on call when you're on annual leave then it is an issue as you'll never get any proper holiday.

If the whole staff is on annual leave then what chance is there of anyone calling you?

It sounds like your company has allowed the whole office to be off for Christmas with the proviso that if something serious goes wrong they may call you. It doesn't sound that unfair?

Thats very true, I suppose, OP, you could tell us what being 'on-call' would entail and then if it is just the odd phone call it may be different than if you are regularly going to be needed to go somewhere to do something.

Luniz

Good replies, and I do second guess myself on whether I may be being unreasonable.

The reason it hasn't been planned for is because it's a last minute thing where they know now there are some areas working which may require cover from us. This doesn't normally happen, it's usually the case that call out is not required.

My concern is more that it becomes expected every year, if the floodgates open. There is no additional payment for this at all either.

getmore4less

What are the terms of the on-call.

The recent on-call/sleepin cases have started to clarify some issues particularly around payment/NMW.

What happens if you are called how do you recover the holiday how will you be paid.

Are you required to be available to come in, what times or can you just deal with things over the phone.

If you are away will they pay for the calls or internet access is needed etc.

If the employer requires you to be somewhere then that could count as working time.

have a read of a few links try this search and similar.
https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=uk+oncall+on+holiday+

Luniz

What are the terms of the on-call.

It's relativelty standard terms. Response within a certain period, and then logged on (remotely) within a certain time to be able to investigate and resolve problems. Payment is made as an add-on yearly figure as part of the contract. Holidays throughout the year cannot be booked, and will not be approved without first arranging cover if you're on call.

What happens if you are called how do you recover the holiday how will you be paid.

There is no renumeration, and no recovery of lost holiday. This is perhaps the biggest argument for it overall. If it were the case that there were some monetary reward for being called, perhaps there would be more incentive to do it. As it is, the expectation is that IF there is a problem, you will be available and around to resolve. There is no additional payment, and no reimbursement of time lost. This is where I wondered whether there was a case to argue about being on holiday.

Are you required to be available to come in, what times or can you just deal with things over the phone.

Potentially, yes. Realistically, it would probably be an exceptional circumstance that could not be resolved remotely (via laptop and phone).

If you are away will they pay for the calls or internet access is needed etc.

No, if you are on call the expectation is that you will be within a certain distance of work and near to an available internet source.

have a read of a few links try this search and similar.

Thank you for this, I will have a read.

Just to clarify, I'm not against actually doing it, even whilst on holiday. What I dislike is that it seems to be expected for nothing. If they were to offer a payment for this period, or additional day off for example, there would really be no problem. Feel free to berate me if I seem unreasonable though, it's something I need to know.