Re:Ask HN: Is on-call outside of work hours is a form of exp...
by shoo on Wednesday March 14, 2018 @05:58AM
(#16583521)
> Only if you are not appropriately paid or otherwise reimbursed for that work.
Yup. If you are on call and are expected to be available to work without much predictability or notice then that "option" on your time should be compensated, regardless of whether you are called in to work, in addition to pay for the time when you are actually called in. If being on call is a standard part of the role then maybe this is priced into the base rate / salary.
If you have a job where you have fewer blocks of time outside of work where you can do whatever you like (eg going camping for days without phone contact) then all things being equal that job should compensate you more for placing more constraints on your time than some other job where you aren't on call.
I worked for two different systems integrators and in both cases on-call work was part of the contract. However, in both cases I got pro-rata time off. So I ended up working about 45-50 hours / week. For some clients I would start at 4am and finish by noon. Had the afternoon off to go to the beach, etc.
We also had an on-call mobile that was passed on at the end of each week. That way, emergency work was distributed across all of the team.