Human Resource Blog

On-call work

Is it legal for us to require employees  to be on-call every 4-6 weeks for a weekend and not get compensated?

Whether or not the on-call employee is entitled to compensation depends upon several factors. But generally, yes, it is lawful for you to require an employee to be on call for one weekend every 4 to 6 weeks. In fact, it would be lawful for you to require the employee to be on call every weekend. An hourly employee is entitled to payment for the time worked — but not necessarily for time on call.

An hourly employee who is required to remain on the work premises is entitled to payment for the entire on-call period. But if the employee is permitted to go about his or her own pursuits, and must carry a cellphone or beeper, or leave a number where he or she can be reached, the employee is not entitled to compensation for the entire time. If the employee is called in to work to solve a problem, the hourly employee must be paid for the time worked. If this results in the employee working more than 40 hours in the payroll week, the employee is entitled to overtime.

The rules are different for exempt hourly employees. An exempt employee is never entitled to overtime, regardless of how many hours he or she works in the week. So, the exempt employee can be required to be on call, and need not be paid even if he or she is called back to work for many hours. Nor is there any requirement that the exempt employee be given compensatory time off during the week.