IT Sector and On Call

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Ultimate Geek
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#2020929 23-May-2018 08:42

gehenna:

I don't think $30 a day ($210 a week) is an unreasonable on-call allowance. Of course that should only be the baseline. Any calls requiring you to do something should be an extra payment on top of the baseline.

$210 to be a prisoner in your own home? Ok for the odd week I guess (1 week out of 8 say) but if it ended up being 48 weeks a year......

gehenna

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#2020969 23-May-2018 09:53

Mattnzl:

$210 to be a prisoner in your own home?

If that's the job you signed up for. If it's not part of your IEA (which on-call provisions definitely should be), then it's debatable. I spent many years on call in my career and the daily/weekly allowance across numerous companies was around the amount detailed here. However, you should be provided equipment so that you're not bound to your home - mobile phone, laptop, tethering ability. Having those never stopped me from doing things - other than maybe going to the movies during an on-call week. Probably a bit easier in Wellington where everything is less than 45 mins from everywhere else. But I still think an extra $200ish on top of base salary is reasonable. Each callout would then be time + 1/2 or double depending on the duration (e.g. time + 1.5 for the first hour, double for every subsequent hour if required).

AlternativeUsername

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#2021019 23-May-2018 10:54

So the feeling I'm taking away from this is the $30 retainer fairly covers the availability for responding to an issue by going out to the site, which I'm fine with, but it would also seem that doing anything more than looking at incoming emails should arguably be paid time.
The next step then would be to clarify a reasonable way to be paid for this - would it be fair to ask minimum one hour time and a half to respond or action anything that comes through, and then let anything extra slide for the next hour?

MichaelNZ

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#2021032 23-May-2018 11:17

An extra $210 per week just for being on call? That sounds ok to me.

The question you should ask yourself is - "do I do ok on the swings and roundabouts"? This means you may work a bit more one week and the next week may be slow, so you get paid for more than you did that week.

There is likely limited point asking people on here (especially those who already have jobs) because it may not be a good comparison. Some will get more and some less. But the ones who get more may be working for corporates and have the extra stuff which goes along with that.

You are working for a small business and it may well be they are paying you as much as they can afford.

Yes, pay is an important part of the job but for me it's not the only consideration. I work part time for an ISP and while (of course) I would like to earn more, in perspective I have it fairly good. Jobs which can be done remotely, as I do mine, are thin on the ground. I have an income and get to persue the off grid rural lifestyle. In addition to this, I get free colo which I can use for my own business interests (I operate an e-commerce website)

I am presently looking for a new job but that is because of the wider picture. I am happy with the work I have been doing and would keep on doing it if I was able to accommodate both.

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tigercorp

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Ultimate Geek
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#2021040 23-May-2018 11:33

AlternativeUsername:

So, my employer has incredibly high expectations for response times - as in responses to anything coming in or going out should basically equal the same as if we were operating during business hours. An email request? Resolve it if possible, otherwise organize for ASAP resolution. A message on our voicemail system? Respond to it promptly and resolve the issue if possible.

If you're expected to respond to not just emergency issues but every query that comes through, that's certainly not my definition of being on-call. That's essentially a normal work day for which you should be suitably remunerated.

I think you first need to engage with your employer to frame what the on-call responsibilities are, so a pay/rate discussion can be held around that.

1101

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#2021053 23-May-2018 11:36

How much after hours On Call work are you actually doing .
Is it every day , once a week . Is it on average a 5minute ph call, or driving onsite for a 3 hour after hours job ?
You employer needs to be realistic, no one can be on call 24/7 , things happen and people become unavailable. Thats his issue , not yours.

Im on salary (a quite low salary), so any after hours work I do , I get nothing extra : a salaried worker . Even if I work all weekend, I get nothing .
This is just how some business's work.
Im in theory on call after hours , but my boss is realistic as to expectations (we both have a life outside work) and luckily this rarely happens

Unfortunately , I cant see a discussion with your employer going well at all .

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gehenna

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#2021056 23-May-2018 11:44

tigercorp:

If you're expected to respond to not just emergency issues but every query that comes through, that's certainly not my definition of being on-call. That's essentially a normal work day for which you should be suitably remunerated.

That's true. If that's the case then you should be on a rotating shift, as your business seems to require BAU actions be undertaken at times outside the normal 8-5 Monday-Friday. On-Call should only be for out of business hours emergency situations, and that will depend what kind of SLAs your company has in place with your customers. On-Call in my experience is an outage of a particularly important service or services that needs to be resolved asap to continue business functions, but your requirements will vary. Either way, it's not just a continuation of daytime tasks into the evening/overnight. That is shift work.

xontech

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Ultimate Geek
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#2021106 23-May-2018 12:44

I'd agree with above comments questioning being on call versus doing BAU work. To me, being on call means being available to respond to and hopefully fix issues, usually higher impact ones. How these are defined probably depends on the support contracts your company has in place with their customers.

Responding to emails/general queries etc sounds like BAU work to me, and if you are doing this after hours it should be covered by your overtime and shouldn't really be mandatory for you to have to do - that's why we have settled on 40 working weeks right? Anything above that on a regular basis needs addressing. If you are doing this outside of core hours you shouldn't then be expected to do a full weeks work during the day as well. It sounds like what they are actually after is shift workers.

xontech

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Ultimate Geek
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#2021107 23-May-2018 12:44

lol @gehenna, bet me to it and is basically saying the same thing as me :-)

chewster

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#2021113 23-May-2018 12:55

If it was just $30/day on call I'd be looking for another job or if you can afford the risk, just flat out refuse to do it unless paid a worthwhile number.

Pretty normal to expect something like:

$30-$100/day on call "standby rate"
1-2 hour minimum call-out charge
1.5x - 2x wages paid for hours (rounded up to nearest hour)
Inbound phone-call or pager beep required to initiate call-out (no active monitoring of email needed)
Remote access tools - mobile, laptop etc should be provided

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tripp

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#2021126 23-May-2018 13:09

My last 2 roles had on call.

1st role had an extra 2 hours a day pay (14 hours extra a week) + time on calls. I was thinking that was bad.

My last role however was so much worse and it was 2 hours extra for the week (+ time on calls) on a system they expected me support after hours that I did not even support during my normal work day.

14 hours extra pay a week was a nice lego set, 2 hours a week is not even a nice dinner out.

If a company needs to supply 24 hour support then they need to hire 24 hour staff.

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dfnt

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#2021260 23-May-2018 17:22

Ok, $30/day is ok. I thought that was for the week.

What isn't ok is not being paid for any time spent responding to calls.

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Lias

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#2021487 23-May-2018 22:26

Current job, smaller company without enough staff for a roster:

No "retainer" payment and thus no expectation of availability. If I'm drunk, out of coverage, or just can't be bothered, I ignore calls. 4 Hours standard pay if I do take a call.

Previous job, part of a larger team in a roster:

$45/weekday and $80/weekend day "retainer" payment, must be sober, within 30 minutes of work etc. Covered short calls/issues (e.g. 5-10 minutes max) any time after that was at $30/hour. Any calls between 10pm and 6am were an instant $60 (covered up to one hours work for that issue only, e.g. Calls at 1am and 3am about same issue = $120, calls about two different issues at 1am and 1:30am, $120, calls about same issue at 1am and 1:30am = $60). Any phone call when you weren't on call, was also an extra $60/call on top of the above rates (e.g. as a senior engineer I sometimes got stuff escalated to me despite not being on call, every time the phone rang was an additional $60, plus the after hours and hourly rates as above)

*edit* both these are IT infrastructure / sys admin type jobs

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insane

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#2021512 23-May-2018 23:24

Lias:

...Any phone call when you weren't on call, was also an extra $60/call on top of the above rates (e.g. as a senior engineer I sometimes got stuff escalated to me despite not being on call, every time the phone rang was an additional $60, plus the after hours and hourly rates as above)...

That's a pretty good arrangement, I used to get the occasional call from colleagues who weren't familiar with certain systems which only a few of us were across (storage, virtualisation, firewalls, backups) - but would never charge for only a few minutes here and there. We all just helped each other out and only billed if we spent perhaps more than 30 minutes on anything. Obviously no expectation to pick up the phone if you're no on-call - but let's face it we all have our mates we'll go the extra mile for.

Handle9

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#2021513 23-May-2018 23:29

I pay my on call guys $250 a week and 3 hours minimum @ 1.5 time. They are all on salary but in my view we are pretty fair. They also have to be away from work for a minimum of 10 hours after a call.

If you are working all sorts of hours then the H&S topic is a fair one to bring up. If the business doesn't have a fatigue management policy then there can be a real problem with some of these types of issues.

We're not IT but a related industry.

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