QUESTION
What are the laws in Montana concerning on-call and on-call compensation?
Asked on Jun 25th, 2012 on Business Law - Montana
More details to this question:
I work for a company that requires its employees to be ¿¿¿on-call¿¿¿, they require us to be on-call every three weeks for a period of a week, week days from 5pm until 8am the next day and on weekends 24 hours. The company pays us a $150 for the week we are on-call, and if dispatched we do not get paid for the first two hours, and after that we get our hourly pay unless we are over 40 hours for that work week, then we get overtime pay of time and a half. While on-call we are required to stay in cell phone range and respond to dispatch within 30 minutes.
When on-call my personal time is greatly affected. Am I being taken advantage of?
1 ANSWER
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Federal labor laws apply to this situation; Montana state law is less restrictive. As a general matter, an employee who is on call whether by beeper or
proximity to a telephone; who is required to be able to report for duty
in a sober state within a reasonable response period (e.g. 20-30
minutes); who is not called so frequently as to significantly interfere
with personal use of the time; and who is given periodic relief from
on-call duty, will not have to be compensated for on-call time. Since you are compensated, and likely at a rate in excess of the minimum wage, it sounds as if your employer has thought this program through with the advice of counsel.
It is not clear what you mean by "personal time is greatly affected." These determinations are extremely fact-intensive, so you will need to go over the details with an attorney to discuss whether you may be entitled to any relief.
Answered on Jun 26th, 2012 at 7:30 AM