On-Call Allowance for I.T - is this normal?

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kruza

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#68468 22-Sep-2010 14:45

Hey,

My company requires me to be on-call for weeknights and weekends every second week as I alternate with a colleague of mine.

Currently we get an allowance for just being on-call and if we get called up to perform any work we get paid our hourly rate for the time we spend on the job.

We don't get paid a minimum number of hours if called out so if I was to only work 15 minutes I get paid 15 minutes.

I'd like to know what the norm is for on-call in NZ or what other people/companies get/offer.

Cheers,
Dan.

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#383198 22-Sep-2010 14:51

Allowance and 3 hours minimum at current job

Prior to that it was an allowance and 1 hour minimum at my previous

darkness

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#383199 22-Sep-2010 14:51

i think you're doing pretty well already.

I'm on 24/7 call 1 week out of 5 (but being the only sysadmin/engineer it's much more often), and we aren't offered anything.

freitasm

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#383206 22-Sep-2010 14:57

Years ago I was on call for a full week, every four weeks, with an allowance plus a three hours minimum...

Response time was five minutes to acknowledge with an operator, and jumping on a conference bridge in another five minutes if needed.

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#383215 22-Sep-2010 15:11

If you worked for an IT vendor you would almost certainly get paid for a minimum number of hours, becase no doubt the vendor would be on-charging your time to the client anyway. But I don't know what the standards are for working for an internal IT department. I would expect any reasonable employer to not expect staff to wake up at 2am to respond to a quick fault and only be paid 15 minutes wages -- unless they felt that your oncall allowance was generous enough to cover it.

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#383232 22-Sep-2010 15:50

Some places just do an allowance per week, no hourly rate. There will be stand down but it's at the oncall persons' and managers discretion.

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Chippo

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#383343 22-Sep-2010 20:55

I'm on-call 24x7 with no allowance beyond having a company phone. Although it's a little different because there's no direct customer calls, just escalated up from the support team (Who are in the office 24x7).

I work for a global Data Protection Software company - But my opinions are my own.

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#383349 22-Sep-2010 21:15

I'm on call 24x7 once every 7 weeks, $75 per hour between 5pm and 10pm and $150 after 10pm and weekends. Minimum call-out 1 hour.

I guess the rate you get will largely be based on the lightly-hood of you getting called out in a week and whether you're being called out for internal company issues or whether your company is charging the end customer out at an even higher rate to cover your fees.

freitasm

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#383350 22-Sep-2010 21:16

Chippo: I'm on-call 24x7 with no allowance beyond having a company phone. Although it's a little different because there's no direct customer calls, just escalated up from the support team (Who are in the office 24x7).

A mobile phone is not an allowance. Is that 'support team' or really an operations team'? Very different...

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Chippo

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#383353 22-Sep-2010 21:31

freitasm: is that 'support team' or really an operations team'? Very different...

Customer firewall dies, customer calls corporate support. Corporate support makes sure that it's actually broken, makes sure they've turned it off and on again. Still broke? Then support calls me. Does that happen often? No. But I still have to carry a phone.

Usually it's just spammers clogging the mail system that gets me out of bed, but that really is operations not support.

When you're a small team it's hard to draw a line between support and operations.

I work for a global Data Protection Software company - But my opinions are my own.

kruza

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#383359 22-Sep-2010 21:58

Thanks for all the feedback!

We look after internal support but our time get charged out to one of our projects which has the requirement for 24x7 support.

At the sametime as being oncall for any IT requirements we are also on a rostered Emergency Response Team which they have grouped together. We get paid the same oncall allowance as everyone else even though they are only on the Emergency Team, that is not the issue though, it's more so if we get called out as part of the Emergency Team we all get minimum 3 hours on weekdays or minimum 5 hours on weekends. But if we get called out for an IT issue they will only pay us out for the time spent on the issue.

Is that fair?

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#383367 22-Sep-2010 22:16

Chippo: I'm on-call 24x7 with no allowance beyond having a company phone. Although it's a little different because there's no direct customer calls, just escalated up from the support team (Who are in the office 24x7).

My dads the exact same. On call all the time and only perks he gets is free cellphone which he takes extreme advantage of I might add. lol. All of his previous jobs have been like this also.

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#383425 23-Sep-2010 06:48

Where I work, we get an allowance but don't get a red cent for actual callouts. Although if part of a deployment then there is a per hour payout. We're internal IT, not customer facing.

langi27

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#383462 23-Sep-2010 09:21

I'm on call out every 3rd week, $500 per week or $70 per day if you work a part week. That includes the 1st 30 minutes of any actual call out, then over and above that is paid at time and a half, and if you get called out on a Sunday greater than 4 hours you get a day in lieu.
I get a phone, vehicle and laptop with a truck full of tools and test equipment.

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#383863 24-Sep-2010 01:13

Do you guys find that when there is a minimum call-out time that people take advantage of it and try get you to spend as much time on the job before they have to pay more than the minimum charge?

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#383893 24-Sep-2010 08:13

insane: Do you guys find that when there is a minimum call-out time that people take advantage of it and try get you to spend as much time on the job before they have to pay more than the minimum charge?

depends on the accountability put in place by leadership.

eg. I was in a team of 2 systems engineers (however the title was questionable for my "colleague"). we worked week about. whenever I was on call the number of callouts, and claims made for work done was far less than my offsider.

however, there was no accountability put in place by management and he got away with it for a long time. when there is an on-call arrangement there needs to be a lot of transparency as to what/when/why work was done outside of normal hours. restrict it to business critical needs...not just regular work. he was claiming regular work as on-call overtime which is ridiculous.

but yes, some people will try to push the boundaries and can get away with anything if the leadership isn't there to hold them accountable for their actions.

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