on call pager payment query

poe.tuesday

where I work the staff work a standard week, then some of them are also 'on call' during the weekends, usually for 12 hours from 5am to 5pm - they are paid £50 per day for this on top of their wages, sometimes they get calls, sometimes they dont - they are expected to be within an hour of their laptops so should they need to log into the system to help.

given they are on call for 12 hours and only get £50, is this legal as surely it breaks the minimum wage? whilst they may not actually be working for the 12 hours, they are on call and could actually work for 12 hours

C_Mababejive

There is a distinction between what is working time and what is paid time. It is quite possible to accrue working time when on call but being paid for all of it is another matter.

When you are on call do you get paid £50 whether you do anything or not? If you are called upon, do you get paid an hourly rate for each hour worked?

What do you have to do if called? Do you have to go somewhere? Cant you just take your laptop out with you if you wish to go out?

TELLIT01

If they get called and actually work I don't think they can only be paid £50 because, as you say, that would be under minimum wage. However, if the salary is fixed and overtime is part of the contract the employer can probably get away with it.
I've been in an on-call situation with 2 employers. With one it was a case of unpaid and if they could get hold of you. With the other it was an extremely good on-call allowance and overtime paid at time and a half or double time on top.
You might correctly surmise that people were much easier to get hold on in the latter case.

poe.tuesday

the pager duty is not part of their contract and is done in addition to their normal Monday to Friday hours - they can not come into the office to work when on pager as the office is closed so they can be anywhere in the world, as long as they have access to their laptops and internet within an hour of being called (not a rule, just an expectation) - they get paid £50 no matter if they get called or not and they do not get any other money other than the set £50, they all claim it via the timesheets that they have to do when rostered to be on pager

when they get called, it could be just a 5 min query in the 12 hours that they respond to, or they could end up being engaged working for the whole 12 hours, its unlikely, but it can happen - there is no usual situation when on pager, its just depends if a situation needs escalating to them etc

FBaby

It depends how you look at it, you could also claim that they earn free money doing nothing (when there are no calls made).

poe.tuesday

totally agree, they can and do get paid for doing nothing on some occasions

its about the law and that is what i am trying to find out, is the amount they are being paid, legal or does it fall under the minimum wage - seems like a very gray area

Nebulous2

Does it matter? If the staff are happy doing it then they should probably leave well alone. If they are unhappy with it then they could ask the question, but the risk would be that rather than just paying them the company would find another way of doing it.

Think about it from the employers point of view. If you have to pay an hourly rate when you might only get 5 minutes work, or indeed none, could you do better for that money?

What about a dedicated on-call team that worked in the gaps between calls? What about having a call centre on a retainer to answer the calls?

poe.tuesday

yes it does matter as the staff are complaining that £50 for 12 hours being tied to their local area is not enough money and some are querying if it is conforming to the minimum wage - they dont see it as being worth it

there is no option to get a dedicated on call team, the role the staff do is a technical specialist role that can not be back filled, the staff who do pager are escalation staff so are at a higher skillset than the weekend staff

from the employers point, if they have to pay the minimum wage then they would have to pay them £78 for the 12 hours

surely the law must state what the rules are?

C_Mababejive

When they are on call even if they are not called, they are not being paid for doing nothing. They are being paid for being at the disposal of the company.

Leaving aside the technicalities for a moment, i think that £50 is a fair deal since the work is not unduly onerous or arduous. All they have to do is flick on a lappy, do a bit of clicking and chatting and job done. Its not like they have to dash out, put a fire out,recover a truck from the motorway in blinding rain or similar.

The other issue of course is that of compensatory rest. If you work for eg from 0800-5.00pm you have used up around 9 hours of your working day. As the law allows you 11 hours rest between shifts/work periods ,this would mean you could only do active work for another 2 hours. After that you would either have to cease work or accept compensatory rest i.e the equivalent time time off the start of the next working day.

Its important not to confuse working time with pay in this discussion.

pete-20-11

I do on call work.

We get £60 for 24 hours of on-call. This is not counted as working in the working time directive. We also have to be available within a an hour, able to travel, not over the limit etc!

If we are needed, we then get paid overtime for the hours we actually work - which do count towards the WTD (e.g. Minimum rests between shifts, total hours etc).

If your normal hours, plus hours you actually work whilst on-call, cause you to earn less than the minimum wage then they are breaking the law.

The alternative of course might be to give you the hours back. E.g. A disturbed Sunday might mean you don't need to go in on Monday but still get paid for Monday's hours.

Takeaway_Addict

I thought the money for call could be under NMW as long as the total hours worked for the week, including the on call hours were over NMW?

ie 40 hours at £10 an hour and 12 hours at £4.17 would be around £9 an hour total.

I could be wrong though as I don't deal with on calls.