Slashdot Mirror
Should You Be Paid For Being On Call?
theodp writes "Fortune's Dear Annie takes on the case of poor Dazed and Confused, an independent webmaster who's expected to be on call for his client at all hours of the day and night, but doesn't get paid for being on call, only for the 40 hours a week that he's in the office. Surprisingly, Annie throws cold water on the contractor's dreams of paid OT, citing these pearls of wisdom from an attorney who's apparently never had the 'privilege' of being a techie on call: 'Many companies see the on-call issue as analogous to a fire fighter's job. Most of the time, a fire fighter is off-duty but on call, hanging around the firehouse, cooking, sleeping, or whatever. What that person really gets paid for is the relatively small, but crucial, amount of time he spends walking into a burning building with an ax. A webmaster, likewise, has slow times and busy times.'" What on call policies are you used to working with and how should it work in an ideal world?
In Denmark, the IT union is one of the stronger ones.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
I'm the only IT person here, and basically how it works for me (I designed the system as I was essentially creating the department) is that I work 40 hours per week, with the expectation that most of the time it will be the standard 9 - 5. If I get called during the night and I'm just on the phone and/or remoting in, that time counts towards the 40 with the time counted in 30 minute chunks (i.e. a 5 minute phone call counts as 30 minutes worked). If I actually have to come in, the time it takes for me to drive there + back to where I was is included in the worked time and (again) time is counted in 30 minute chunks. It works out pretty well for me.
Track your TV Shows with your iPhone - FREE
My experience, working with an education union in Oregon.
Suppress wages - I did IT, the school district was bound to make me an hourly worker by labor agreement with the Union, the Union that represented us was the union for school workers, janitors, secretaries, cafeteria workers. So yes, my wages were suppressed, I couldn't leave the union, couldn't get step pay raises because of education or certification, just by putting time in.
Defend the inept - Having the Union defend a coworker that threatened other coworkers (he talked about bringing a gun in if we didn't treat him better, to a school), tell me not to testify against another Union member who was accused of surfing child p0rn on an elementary school computer, oh it was grand.
Petty crap during "bargaining" years - Teachers union are "bargaining" so they all park in front of school district office, where a number of members of another union work, vandalize cars during work hours. I worked in administration for years and they never did anything like that.
Strong arming members - No secret ballots, blacklisting people who vote against what the union wants for a contract or strike vote, pressure to vote in State and Federal elections for the union's preferred candidate, etc. If you belong to a Teachers Union in the US, just try and vote against what the union wants, and they know who you are because you had to show your union card when you turn in your ballot.
The trouble ensued when he was about to be laid off and his employer decided (instead of letting him go) to offer him a position as an independent contractor, paid at a rate of 40 hours a week in the office.
If that's really what happened, he's got more problems than this on-call business. As described, that is what the IRS calls 'conversion' and they will reclassify him back as an employee, fine the crap out the employer and keep the self-employment taxes he's been paying as a contractor (double-dip).
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I have a lot of experience dealing with various nursing unions (the mothership hospital and the small branch I worked at operated an off-site renal unit which had staff from both hospitals working together), and from what I've seen, the issue isn't that specific teacher's union. It's the majority of them.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.