Oncall rates, IT

PaulJM

My employer is currently working up a proposal for us to go on call - we're home workers in an IT service management environment. 
Just so I can be forearmed, it'd be really helpful, if you're happy to, if anyone could tell me what they're currently getting paid for this kind of oncall work? A retainer plus time worked for eg? 

TELLIT01

I think you may be surprised by the different rates paid.  It's a long time since I did on-call but when the first employer introduced it they simply said we were expected to be available, but would only be paid if called out.  That very quickly changed when nobody heard their phone ring in the evenings or at weekends.  Even when it was changed the on-call payment was minimal, but at least a rota was introduced.  That was an engineering company.

When I worked for a financial institution we received an on-call payment of about £100 per week and an hourly rate on top if actually called out. 

DullGreyGuy

From a legal and practical point of view it depends on a matter of factors such as if you have to be a certain place whilst on call, wear a uniform or not, respond within a very short timescale etc... note that being banned from drinking alcohol is not considered a restriction. 

If those are triggered then the whole shift is considered working time for the purposes of working out if you are being paid minimum wage etc whereas if you can be anywhere, wear anything etc then responding to the call is all that counts. 

What it is in practice varies massively... some pay a low retainer but pay 1.5x for the hours actually worked, some pay a higher retainer but standard time for the hours worked.

On the rare occasions I've done it its been exceptional and agreed at simply my standard rate which is charged by the half day (over or under 4hrs) but my rate of pay isn't going to risk me getting anywhere near NMW

LeafGreen

I realise this post is from a few weeks ago, but @PaulJM did you get anything agreed?

In my experience for IT standby with about 1 hour SLA to start looking at an issue, going rate is £250-£300/week for 24x7 cover plus something roughly equivalent to overtime for the time spent actually working. 
I do know people on more but think they are expected to be available in more like 30 mins (or less!)

I think there is also some rule where you accumulate some additional holiday pay as well, based on the amount of time you spend on standby - but I don't know how that is calculated.

EnPointe

it will depend on the following 

Frequency ?  - how often is the individual on call 
Intensity ? - how likely is the on call to get called 
Response Standard ?  - what is the response time for the on call to respond to the inital enquiry  / respond to site if required ot attend /  have a fix 
restrictiveness of the on call  ?  Sober ? Geographical restriction ? response time  ?  ( being immediately on the end of the phone / pager  is rather different ot 'needs ot respond to a email / messenger within 60 mins )