Beepers

[fireman1]

What is the name of your state? Texas

My supervisor about 4-5 years ago required that all fireman had to carry beepers on our days off.
We are required to call within 30 minutes of a beep.
Those that do not call within the required time or did not call, will receive a disciplinary aciton.
I have also been told by my supervisor that if service was down in my area, I may have to start calling in a 10 am, 2 pm, and 4 pm. To check and see if I'm needed.

Is this putting a person on call?
Should a person receive on call pay for this?


Also, I have been forced in from my house on my day off to work.


And I work 24 hour shifts, yet I only receive 16 hours of pay. They say that after 10 pm we are aloud to go to sleep. But we cannot leave.
Yet if we get woke up in the night, we get overtime.

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state? Texas

My supervisor about 4-5 years ago required that all fireman had to carry beepers on our days off.
We are required to call within 30 minutes of a beep.
Those that do not call within the required time or did not call, will receive a disciplinary aciton.
I have also been told by my supervisor that if service was down in my area, I may have to start calling in a 10 am, 2 pm, and 4 pm. To check and see if I'm needed.

Is this putting a person on call?
Should a person receive on call pay for this?


Also, I have been forced in from my house on my day off to work.


And I work 24 hour shifts, yet I only receive 16 hours of pay. They say that after 10 pm we are aloud to go to sleep. But we cannot leave.
Yet if we get woke up in the night, we get overtime.

**A: are you in some sort of union or collective bargaining unit? If not, given the type of job that you have, yes, you are basically on call 24/7 and yes the employer has a right to require you to use the pager and call in for both circumstances.

 

[fireman1]

im salaried. non-exempt.
Not part of the union.


So, if I am on call 24/7, shouldnt I be receiving some sort of compensation for this?

Know of any case law on the matter?

 

[fireman1]

Also, what about being required to stay at work between the hours of 10 pm to 6 am without pay?

 

[cbg]

You PROBABLY are not entitled to on-call pay, since you have a fair amount of freedom with the beeper and a reasonable amount of time to call in. It would be different if you were tied to a phone so that you couldn't leave the house, and had to return the call within 5 or 10 minutes.

But state law varies, so a call to your state DOL wage and hour division would not do any harm. They will be able to tell you whether state law requires on-call pay under your specific circumstances.

 

[fireman1]

I take it, DOL is department of labor?

 

[HomeGuru]

Yes.........

 

[Beth3]

Yes. This is their website: http://www.twc.state.tx.us/