On-Call Status and Compensation
Date: November, 2007
Responsible Officer: Director, Human Resources
- PURPOSE
To establish a consistent procedure to identify and compensate classified employees who are required by the university to respond to emergency or essential work situations related to their official duties and responsibilities.
- AUTHORITY
This policy is in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S.C. 201, et seq.), which outlines specific employment policies including overtime and on-call stipulations. - DEFINITIONS
On-Call Status
A classified employee who is required by his or her supervisor/department to be available to respond to emergency or essential work situations related to his/her official duties and responsibilities shall be considered on-call.
Call-Back Status
When a classified employee is called back to work in response to emergency or essential work situations directly related to his/her official duties and responsibilities.
Non-Exempt Employee
An employee who is not exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and therefore must be paid at a rate of time and a half for every hour worked over 40 in a workweek.
Exempt Employee
An employee who is exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and is therefore not eligible to be paid overtime at the university. Such positions are normally in supervisory, management, administrative positions or specialized positions such as instructional faculty members and software engineers.
Essential Work
Work that is deemed by a department to be critical enough as to justify the employee's extended availability beyond the normal work schedule. - APPLICABILITY
This policy applies to all non-exempt classified employees who are working in a position that requires their availability to be called back to work in response to emergencies or work that is deemed essential and that is related to official duties and responsibilities. It also applies to the manager of any department with at least one classified employee required to be on on-call status. - POLICY
Restricted On-call Status
A non-exempt employee is considered in the restricted on-call status if the employee is required to remain by a telephone or at a certain location and cannot use his/her personal or non-duty time effectively while on-call. Restricted on-call hours are to be counted as hours worked and compensated accordingly.
Unrestricted On-call Status
A non-exempt employee is considered in unrestricted on-call status if he/she is free to spend non-duty time as he/she chooses. If an employee only has to leave word as to where he/she can be reached or carries a beeper, he/she is considered unrestricted and therefore not entitled to compensation.
Call-Back Pay
A non-exempt employee who is called back to work shall be compensated for the hours actually worked, or three hours, whichever is more, and in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act. Travel time to and from home is not used in determining hours worked. - PROCEDURES
Not applicable. - RESPONSIBILITIES
Supervisors of classified employees in an on-call status are responsible for strict adherence to this policy.
Directors of departments with employees in on-call status are responsible for regularly monitoring department practices to ensure compliance with this policy. - SANCTIONS
Sanctions will be commensurate with the severity and/or frequency of the offense and may include termination of employment. - EXCLUSIONS
Exempt employees who are on-call or called back to work are not compensated for hours worked nor granted compensatory time. - INTERPRETATION
The authority to interpret this policy rests with the president, and is generally delegated to the Director of Human Resources.
Previous version: November, 2005
Approved by the President: November 2002
___________________________________________________________________________ Index of Terms
On-call
Call-back status