On-call engineers - your advice please?

[BigDannyO]

I'm on un-official all out, and yes I was told the same as you. My contract states that some elements of my job are required to be undertaken out of hours, and I will receive time in lieu in return. Problem being, I'm too busy to take my lunch hour and holidays, let alone any time in lieu. So the hours build up on my spreadsheet, and I have been refused payment in return.

I have to use my own mobile, but I switch it off when I'm asleep, otherwise I'd never get some kip!

Hmm, this sounds worryingly familiar. Our contracts are very basic at the moment and quite vague about working hours as it is. I'm already coming in way before my start time to set up every day and cant remember last time I had lunch, but up until now it hasn't bothered me because it's commensurate with my position.

I think any assumed OOH work without compensation would be taking a liberty. To be honest I'm not that keen on doing it anyway with things going on in my personal life, but could always do with extra money and want to try to remain professional.

 

[Caged]

To put you on regular on-call rotation would need a change in contract. If the terms are terrible then none of your team sign the revised contracts. They aren't going to get rid of an entire department.

 

[oldbag]

To put you on regular on-call rotation would need a change in contract. If the terms are terrible then none of your team sign the revised contracts. They aren't going to get rid of an entire department.

Haha, you'd be surprised. In some companies the ignorance divide between management and engineers is huge. Management think the 'support' is a simple button click by the engineer and any monkey can do it. So they may just try.

 

[wnb]

I employ people who do OOH, you directors are so out of touch it is a wonder they have not gone bankrupt. We do healthcare and a few years ago we checked out similar companies who did 24/7, we drew up a package which was competitive for our area and presented it to our Staff. In addition to this we needed to recruit people a few people. We were happy, staff were happy and we expanded our service to new and existing customers which kept them happy.

 

[Wink]

It is precisely this. Not a great situation to be in.

What about the MD?

Does he acknowledge that's it's pretty common practice to be paid extra for being on call, to be issued a company phone (or have costs covered in another way) etc?

 

[big_white_dog84]

Your customer needs to be told that he will have to pay for an on call service. This money is passed to the on call engineers. I do a 1:10 and get approx 10% bump in wages. First two hours are free, then time and a half or double time if still out.

 

[JBod]

Our on-call compensation is very simple. We provide a candy bar phone for maximum battery life and a laptop with a built in SIM card. You get £150 flat rate for carrying the phone and responding within 30mins to an alert, once you start working you immediately get double time kicked in. Once the problem is solved you fill in a shared Google doc with a start, end time and brief explanation of what happened.

It is agreed that during "sleep hours" of 11pm until 7am (ish) that the time you claim is the time it disturbed you rather than the actual time spent fixing (ie. a ping down and 5min later ping backup actually results in about 20min lost sleep).

There is extra money for bank holidays and triple time +£50 extra per day for those working Xmas Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day.

 

[MissChief]

They want you to provide OOH, on call, 24/7 support with no increase in pay for a completely unique, bespoke system? And it's not even April first! Not a chance and if you have any sense you need to get all your team on side. Next thing they'll be asking for hours worked at 2am not deducted from your work week and expect you to come in on time the next day!

Company MUST provide a mobile. No way would I be doing anything but taking calls on a personal mobile. If you need to make calls then the company should provide a mobile for this purpose.

 

[Pestilence]

The first two OP remarks = "'Avin' a laaaaff, intcha!??!?!"

The third would need to be decided. Generally, an escalation point would need to be in place, which includes on-site visitation if required.

Essentially, though, on-call personnel should expect a standard flat increase in salary to compensate for the time expected outside of normal hours (on a regular basis), PLUS compensation when actually taking calls during their time performing on-call services. This would generally be time and half or double time depending on whether during a normal week or bank/scheduled holidays. Normally in 15 minute increments, too -- so, a call at 3am that lasts 10 minutes would net 15 minutes at double time pay rate.