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On Call

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  • 11-03-2010 10:34pm
    #1
    LegacyUser
    Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭


    I work in a Public Sector IT dept and we have been providing an on call service 24\7 for the past 8 years for little over €10 a day. It's not the money but the impact that it is having on our family lives that has brought us to the conclusion that we no longer want to provide this service. (Can't mind the kids or go to the gym or travel too far from work in case you get a call). It isn't stated anywhere in our contracts that we must provide this service but our manager has told us that it's custom and practice and that we have to continue to provide it

    Can anyone give me some advice on where we stand at the moment

    Thanks


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    #2
    jenny jinks
    Closed Accounts Posts: 76 ✭✭jenny jinks


    Have you got a union?


  • Options
    #3
    Mrs OBumble
    Registered Users Posts: 25,965 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    Can you propose any possible solutions for them?

    The obvious one is that they outsource the whole function, and make you redundant. Is that what you want to achieve?

    Would more money make it more acceptable? I doubt it, from what you've said. And in the current climate you'd have to do it in a fiscally neutral way, which you probably wouldn't like.

    Could a subset of staff do all the on-call hours, and thus have even less of a life, but more money (just)?

    Another option is that problems are only addressed during working hours. What would be the impact of this on the office's productivity. (Server crashes 8pm Sunday night. Diagnosis, swapping it out and restoring data takes 4 hours, can't start until 8am Monday morning. Service is restored 12:15pm ... no one does any work until Monday afternoon. Acceptable? Well, does it matter if the day's work gets done or not ... people on the receiving end of benefit payments etc probably think it matters!)

    Ye need to think hard about what you want the outcome to be.


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    #4
    shoegirl
    Registered Users Posts: 2,021 ✭✭✭shoegirl


    igorted wrote: »
    I work in a Public Sector IT dept and we have been providing an on call service 24\7 for the past 8 years for little over €10 a day.

    Count yourself lucky, where I work its expected as a matter of course for free, and overtime is not paid for or allowed in lieu unless you go over 48 hours.

    That said, unless people are actually using the systems 24x7 there is no point in fixing stuff at 3am on a Saturday night. They need proper service levels to be set and expectations to be more reasonable.
    Also get a rota in place so everybody isn't perpetually on call. I split a rota up between about 11 people and it works quite fairly.


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