On Call Allowance

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Does anyone provide out of hours cover and actually get paid for it? I've been asked to look into setting up a formal on call policy for my company (currently it's a case of phone me and I'll deal with it)

I'm not sure what the going rate is for being on call or receiving call outs etc. At the moment the list I have is:

Company to provide mobile, laptop and Internet access (either via data card/USB mobile or pay for broadband connection)

Employee must be able to respond to a call within a certain timeframe

Employee must be able to go to the office if necessary within a certain timeframe

% of salary paid hourly for being on call as bonus (15%)

Call out rate if called (2 x Hourly wage per call, max 1 call/claim per 1 hour period)

I'm just thinking out loud with the figures above, I'd be interested to see what everyone else gets or thinks.

Thanks

 

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When I'm on call-out for my company I get paid £4.80 per hour, and double time (min. 1hr) if I get called up - even for a chat.
If I have to go in, I again get double time and that includes all time from when the phone call was made until I get back home again (also at double time).

All in all, works quite well considering work is at least 1 hr away

 

Well I don't work in IT but I do get called in ocasionally I get double time which is about £20.65 an hour, our IT guys get £45 call out fee then an extra percentage on their salary at the end of the month, I believe its 25% of their hourly wage equated into how long they were working out of hours.

 

I've been in senior roles for a while now and the elevated salary comes with higher responsibilities - one of which is seemingly being 'on call' whenever I'm needed! I don't really mind - I'm happy enough with the salary I'm being paid now not to care.

From memory, last time I had a 'paid' on-call system was when i was a DBA - me and the other guy worked one week on, one week off. We got a 20% salary rise per week we were on call, plus time and a half if we were called. For the last eight months I was there we were called every night to sort out a batch run problem - kerching!

 

My most recent position as a network admin was similar - I didn't get anything "extra" for being called in. My employer worked with me; if I had to come in late or stay late, I was able to come in late the next day or take the whole day off completely. It usually worked out to my favor.

 

Like zebulebu and BosonMichael said…
In my previous ‘perm’ roles I’ve always been compensated higher to cover any calls; and yes they got their monies worth!

In my contract roles, I’d just tack on the extra hours worked. In essence I’d just get my regular hourly rate. The role I’m in now actually pays some sort of premium when called. Funny thing – I’ve never been called (3rd level support)

 

Thanks guys - I've always been in the same situation as most, where it's just part of the job.

In my latest role I've been asked to formalise it, and with that there will hopefully be a financial incentive there (more than likely not for me, although I'll be sharing the duties, but for the guys working for me)

So let's say for example someone earns £400 per week for a 40 hour week. For them to be on call the remaining 16 hours per day at 15% of their salary would earn them an additional £168 per week.

If this was offered to you (forgetting current salaries, lets say you get by on the base £400) what would you think? Would you be expecting additional money if called out, even if it's was a problem that could be resolved remotely?

 

If it was a too regular thing then I wouldn't be happy not at that rate, if its supposed to be a permanent on call thing then I would ask for higher the IT guys at my place get 25% extra.

 

Our guys get something like £40 per hour for the first 2 hours and £60 per hour after each day dependant on calls. So if your calls take 2 hours then after that you get £60 for each hour after. This also includes time to get to the office if needed (so you could get £40 if it takes you an hour to drive in, £40 for handling any calls for an hour and then £60 fro the drive hoem). Bear in mind most of the calls we handle take 10 mins to sort so you'd have to do 2 hours worth of calls before you got £60 so that might mean at least 12 calls a night. Also the guys get a on call rota bonus of £250 a week on call, but as theres 7 of them they go on call once every 7 weeks so dont get it every month.

Hope that makes some sort of sense.

 

I think this sounds reasonable but I'd also expect an hourly rate if I was contacted. Basically the on call allowance is just for making yourself available during those hours.

 

To be honest... I'd rather be allowed to sleep in the next day, or to spend time with my family to make up for the lost time.

 

Ditto.

This weekend, for instance, we cut our WAN links over to MPLS from VPNs, so I spent Saturday afternoon in a data centre. Spoke to my boss afterward and he told me to take this afternoon off - so it's a bit swings and roundabouts for me - which suits me fine. Money isn't everything - I already get paid enough not to start moaning about not having any O/T - though you can be damn sure that if I didn't, I'd want the money instead of the time off

 

At my work the server admins get paid £12K extra a year for being on call and we charge around £800 a day for being on-site.

 

Where do I sign up?

Thanks for all the input so far. I'd always be flexible where if someone worked late they would have the morning/afternoon off etc.

So I'm looking at anything betweek 15-25% for being on call, with possible bonus per callout. Let's see if management will cough up the dough....

 

You may charge £800 a day for on site, but if its anything like our place the engineers don't get the £800.

We charge £600 a day for training but the engineers get thier standard wage for the day (say £60) and if they stay over night they get another £50 per night away plus expenses.

 

I agree with the quote to an extent... If I'm called rarely, then it's fair to get the time off.
If I'm being called very regularly then the pay structure indicated doesn't work. It would mean I'd have to be close to home/office, and relatively sober all the time, and no bonus when actually being called.