Can your employer force you to go on-call?

You employer might ask you to work ‘on call’, also known as ‘on standby’, outside your usual working hours. You only have to work on call if it’s in your contract. If your employer asks you to stay at your workplace and you have to be available to work when they ask, all the time you’re on call counts as working time.

Is mandatory on-call legal?

As with any nonexempt employee, federal law requires that on-call, nonexempt employees must still be compensated at or above the minimum wage and must be paid overtime for all hours worked in excess of 40 in any given workweek.

Can you force someone to be on-call?

No one can force you to take the call and show up. They could fire you for not meeting the condition. Other than a specific contract for which one could be sued for breaching, employers can’t force anybody to do anything.

Does on-call count as working hours?

When workers are on-call but based at home or somewhere other than their workplace, on-call time only counts as working time from the time they are called out (this is also the direction in which employers are seeking to push regulations governing on-call shifts at the workplace as part of the European Union review of …

Can I refuse to be on call?

Some organizations and union contracts specify rules related to on-call work, but in general an organization can require it whether there are rules or not, it’s just that they may have to pay or think about scheduling requirements of policy or contracts.

Can my employer require me to be on call without pay?

Under regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay a non-exempt employee for on-call time if he or she “is required to remain on call on the employer’s premises or so close thereto that he cannot use the time effectively for his own purposes.

Can my employer make me be on call without pay?

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, on-call hours may or may not be considered hours worked. If on-call hours count as hours worked, you need to pay your employees for their on-call time. However, you must pay employees when they respond to a call.

Are on call shifts legal?

However, changes in California and other states’ laws mean that on call shifts could violate state reporting time pay laws, which means that employers have to pay a certain minimum amount to an employee who showed up to work, but does not work long enough during required minimum compensation or is not assigned in any …

Can I refuse to be on-call?

Should you be compensated for being on-call?

The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) document from Governor Gavin Newsom’s office says it best: “On-call or standby time at the work site is considered hours worked for which the employee must be compensated even if the employee does nothing but wait for something to happen.”

Should I be paid while on call?

In California, “on call” employees should be paid for the time they wait to learn if they are working or not. If you haven’t been adequately compensated for hours you’ve spent “on call” you may be owed money.

Should employers pay for on-call work?

Because courts often pay attention to the number of calls an on-call worker receives when determining whether the time is compensable, employers should, too.

What is an on-call employee?

Many organizations instead keep workers on call, i.e., not physically present at the workplace but still available to answer phone calls, respond to emails or address other crises off hours. When on-call workers are hourly, their pay is governed by strict rules. Employers who fall out of compliance not only risk alienating staff.

Can my employer force me to work on my days off?

If you have an actual written employment contract setting out your days off, that would be different: a contract is binding on both employer and employee and is enforceable against both. Your employer cannot make you work on a day contractually guaranteed to be your day off.

Are You entitled to compensation for hours you don’t spend working?

You may be entitled to compensation, even for hours you don’t spend working, if you must be on call for your job. On-call time is time when an employee is not actually performing job duties, but must be available to work if called upon.