"On call" during annual leave

chowells17

I work in the private health sector.
Due to have almost 2 weeks leave over Christmas/New year.
Today I have been told that I and 2 colleagues, need to be "on call" on a rota system during this time.
This will involve receiving and making telephone calls and perhaps seeing patients, and being available 24/7.
Can this be enforced, or am I within my rights to refuse?
Any help would be appreciated.

boliston

this does not sound like annual leave to me! what happens if you want to go on holiday?

Undervalued

You probably can refuse but remember an employer can dictate when you can and cannot take your holidays.

They can't now, lawfully, cancel the holiday you have booked (to do that they would have to give you notice of twice the length of the holiday). However next year they could perfectly lawfully refuse any holiday request over Christmas.

So be careful what you wish for!

chowells17

The entire workforce is on annual leave, as the hospital closes for the festive period.
We have no choice but to be on annual leave and have to keep annual leave to cover the time the hospital is closed

ohreally

You're on holiday and wont be around, let your manager take the phone calls and perhaps see patients.

LMG1305

Where I work we have to have our engineers on call for out of hours calls as we are contracted to provide 24 hour service to some of our customers. The general rule is if they want time off that clashes with their on call, they are responsible for arranging the cover and notifying all departments, otherwise the holiday request is refused. However, in the case of somebody being on call over a bank holiday, they get the day back, even if they aren't physically called out to attend a customer site.

It is written into their contracts though that they will sometimes be required to be on call, sometimes at short notice, so i would suggest you check what your contract says regarding the on call situation.

If you have to do the on call, I would suggest you discuss with your employer what will happen with those days holiday, whether you get them back (which I would think they legally have to do, but you would need to check this). Can you and your 2 colleagues sit down together & try to come up with a rota yourselves, maybe do 3 or 4 days each on a repeat. Or each of you agree to do one of the bank holidays each & then split the rest of the days on a 2 on, 4 off cycle or something similar depending on how that falls.

Also, I echo what Undervalued says. They might just back down this year but come next year they will be prepared for similar actions so might well refuse any holiday requests until they have agreed the rota.

TELLIT01

You need to tell your employer that you will not be able to provide cover at such short notice because you have other commitments. There is no way they can enforce it at such short notice. I sense a management c*ck up and somebody trying to cover their posterior at the last minute.

agrinnall

How has this been handled in previous years?

Rosemary7391

How is there anything to be on call for if the hospital is closed ? Why has it been left so late to sort? If it's a genuine mistake, really needs to be done and isn't too much hassle I'd consider how much I liked my employer - a bit of give and take is always useful in these relationships. The lack of any of those points would have me telling them they're asking for something highly unreasonable, especially if you're travelling over the holiday for instance. It's a bit of a cheek to tell you you must take annual leave for this time and be on call!

Ozzuk

Do you currently provide on call services? Assuming you were happy to even entertain this (and I wouldn't be) then I'd be asking are they providing phones (as you want to keep your work/personal life separate), what happens if you don't answer (drinking for instance) what kind of compensation are you getting to be on standby and in addition what will you receive should you get called.

I'd then weigh all that up against what plans I had, its a professional approach (IMO).

Just to add some balance, I'm on call pretty much 24x7 but it is best endeavours. I don't mind because my phone is paid for, I get nothing if I'm called but I'm in a senior position so compensated other ways (salary level). If I'm on holiday out of the country then its tough, I can't respond, but if I'm around it rarely bothers - but I'm called once a month at the most.

getmore4less

Undervalued wrote: »

You probably can refuse but remember an employer can dictate when you can and cannot take your holidays.

They can't now, lawfully, cancel the holiday you have booked (to do that they would have to give you notice of twice the length of the holiday). However next year they could perfectly lawfully refuse any holiday request over Christmas.

So be careful what you wish for!

Contract overides the legislation, they have to refer to their contract.