Told I'm being added to an on-call schedule

Gregor Samsa

I work for a multinational IT company based in the States, with offices worldwide. I won't go into the full complicated arrangements of this, but the crux of the matter is that I got an email from my boss (who is in the States), telling me that I've been added to an on-call rota for weekend emergency support work. They were scant on details, but what I know so far is:

• I'll be on call every weekend for a month, every 3 months (2 other people in the UK will be doing the 2 months in between).
• They want me to start this weekend for the rest of March, then I'd be on again for all the weekends of June, then September, etc.
• The hours will be 9 AM to 3 PM Saturday and Sunday.
• I'll be given a Blackberry to be contactable by phone and email.
• The nature of my work is such that I can do it from home on my PC (although, I'm having technical difficulties with that at present).
• No mention of compensation at all.

I've been in the company 6 years, and would often volunteer to work late on urgent stuff, which is fine, but this is the first time that anything like this is being formalised, and there's no discussion about it.
I'm the only person in my office who does my job, and I don't report to anyone there - my manager is in the States, and my team are spread worldwide.

Obviously, I need to get more details on this from my manager, as at the moment, I don't even know what they expect of me when "on-call". Am I expected to sit in the house all day? Can I go half an hour away? An hour? What happens when I go to an area where there's no mobile coverage (my in-laws house has no Vodafone signal at all)?

Going on historical form, the nature of my work is such that there would be at least one incident that I'd have to look into pretty much every weekend, with maybe one in 3 being something that I'd have more than an 3 hour's worth of work to do on it. So it's not like I'd be on call, and pretty much guaranteed for nothing to happen. I'd certainly be getting at least one call a weekend, and some weekends, I could end up working substantial hours.

I can bring up the issue of compensation with them (pay or time in lieu), but to be honest, I value my free time too much to actually want to do this, so any "agreement" we come to is basically going to be under duress. I work hard during the week, often putting in unpaid extra hours, but value switching off at the weekend. My hobbies also include outdoors stuff - hillwalking, watersports, photography, which aren't conducive to being tethered to my house for 1/3s of the weekends of the year.

But I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this, or knew what my rights are? Obviously, my boss being in the US is only thinking about how they do things over there.

ongarboy

I would think you are entitled to say that you are not in a position to do it. For all they know, you could have committed to looking after an elderly relative or child at weekends that you cannot get out of. The downside is that while they can't force you to do it, it may look unfavourably when it comes to bonus/pay rise/promotion time. That is unfair but is often how management will assess such things. Is there a compromise (ie would one weekend in three be preferable to you rather than giving up 4 weekends in a row each time it's your turn)

jimoc

This would be considered a change to your working contract and as such would require that the company issue you a new contract and that you agree to it.
if you don't then they cant just tell you that you are going on call and you have to do it.

aidodo

Thats a ridiculous demand by the company.They want you to work an extra 40 days a year approx.You certainly shouldnt agree to this without a hefty compensation.
Check your contract and make sure of what you are obliged to do.Your contract should state your working times and any call-out requirement. If it doesnt then this new callout requirement is not obligatory.

If you dont want to do this I would say to them, that you cant do it for personal reasons (like having a life !) and if they ask what are those reasons, say its none of their business.

My employer needs an on call rota also, but they pay us extra for it and they are understanding if people dont want to do it.

Gregor Samsa

Thanks for the replies. I really needed a sanity check on this.

I spoke to HR today (who are based here in Ireland). While my contract says that we need to be flexible with out of hours work (which I certainly am), they said that this goes way beyond that, as it formalises extra out of hours work. Basically, I'd need to be compensated for being on call, compensated for any actual extra work done, and given appropriate time off during the week, as effectively I'd be working 30/31 days straight when on the rota. And even then, I'd have to agree to it. So they're going to explain this to my manager, and we'll see what happens from there.

They did mention that it would be important not to be seen as "unhelpful" in this (I agree), but that no one should be expected sign up to the proposal as it stands - in fact, it wouldn't be legal to do so.

smcgiff

That you've got HR on your side is 99% of the battle really.