On-Call

DerOS

Howdy,
anyone here got any details regarding rates of pay for being on-call (specifically in the engineering sector)?
More importantly, anyone got any experience w.r.t. being on-call over the christmas period, for example, and how this is treated by your employer? I mean, how can someone be expected to be on-call (and therefore stay within a reasonable distance of your place of work) and also fully enjoy the benefits of being on holidays - i.e. by heading to the Canaries for a week?!! How someone can be expected to be on-call whilst they are on holidays and conversely how they can be regarded as taking holidays when they are on-call???
Thanks!

Tom Dunne

DerOS wrote:

how can someone be expected to be on-call (and therefore stay within a reasonable distance of your place of work) and also fully enjoy the benefits of being on holidays - i.e. by heading to the Canaries for a week?!!

You can't. You are either on holidays or on call, not both (in my experience anyway)

Pay rates are very company dependent, so it's difficult to say "you should get x amount". In one place I worked, you were paid 12.5% premium just for being on call, plus if you were called, you got 4 hours pay or however long you worked on a problem whichever was greater (i.e. if the call was 10 mins, you still go paid for 4 hours, if the call was 8 hours, you got paid for 8 hours).

I coming from an IT background.

DerOS

Thanks Tom. My company has the same minimum 4 hours at 1.5 rate for a call out. The weekly rate is €190.00 pre-tax for being on-call and a rota system applies, which means each employee is on call once every three weeks. As it's approaching christmas, the unlucky ones who are scheduled to be on-call for the holiday period are, understandably, questioning whether they're actually on holidays while they're on-call and whether our employer has any obligation in law to add these days to each affected person's holiday entitlement. I'm going abroad for christmas and would be doing so regardless of whether I were scheduled to be on-call or not but wonder what would happen if all the others were to say the same thing to our boss, i.e. that they were leaving the country for christmas (as I can only imagine they're perfiectly entitled to do...). Anyway, thanks for your input.

The Doktor

I get €40 per day monday to thursday, €60 friday to sunday, and €80 for bank holidays.
If i am called i get 1.5 time,and on sunday or bank holidays double time. I get time off for each hour i am called out on a bank holiday.
At the moment I am on call one week in every 4 which isnt too bad.
As for christmas, we split up the period from maybe 22 dec to 2 jan between all the employees on each rota. So each of us end up with only a couple of days, which is much fairer than landing the whole holiday on one individual.
We found that if we just let the rota run, and let the one guy do the holiday, he could end up with christmas for a few years in a row, depending on how the rota is done(i got it 3 times:mad: ).
Dont forget your 11 hours uninterupted break!!!

steve-hosting36

We generally pay a 15% premium on salary for on call.

Redshift

I do on call as well, pain in the ass but it's got to be done.
We get 200 euro for the week plus overtime for call outs @ 1.5 for the first 4 hours moving to double time after that or just double time on Sunday or bank holidays.
If i'm called out during the week for example called out at 2am and back home at 4 am then I don't report for work the following day untill 3pm or eleven hours later (afaik; you are legally entitled to eleven hours uninterputed rest)

DerOS

Thanks for that all. I'm less worried about the pay rates than the fact that being on holidays and being on call should, in my mind, be mutually exclusive! i.e. the ability to go to Bermuda or get wasted on your holidays is surely one's prerogative and being on-call should therefore not be considered being on holiday! I'm hardly the first to question this; there's surely some precedent in law regarding how this is treated! I raised the question with the Employment Rights Information Unit and the guys said "It appears unfair that you would be unable to travel abroad when on holidays as holidays should be your own time." .... Tell me something I don't know! Ah well...

Eoin

DerOS wrote:

Thanks for that all. I'm less worried about the pay rates than the fact that being on holidays and being on call should, in my mind, be mutually exclusive! i.e. the ability to go to Bermuda or get wasted on your holidays is surely one's prerogative and being on-call should therefore not be considered being on holiday! I'm hardly the first to question this; there's surely some precedent in law regarding how this is treated! I raised the question with the Employment Rights Information Unit and the guys said "It appears unfair that you would be unable to travel abroad when on holidays as holidays should be your own time." .... Tell me something I don't know! Ah well...

In our place we get a set amount for the week for being on call 24/7 and we will get a little more for each bank holiday that may occur in that week. If we have taken annual leave, then we are not be expected to be on call. However, it is up to us to arrange the rota between ourselves, so invariably we either have to cover Christmas week or New Years day.