It isn’t always easy to figure out when you have to pay employees for time that they’re on call. But this latest opinion letter sheds some light. In the case, a nonprofit ambulance service paid drivers hourly from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m In addition, the drivers were also on call in the early morning or late evening five days a week.

The facts

When they were on call, drivers had to:

• respond to calls within 8 minutes, including driving to the squad house and picking up an ambulance
• be reachable at all times, and
• refrain from using alcohol and other substances that might impair their judgment.

The number of calls the drivers had to respond to varied greatly. In the winter, it was common to respond every day; other times of the year, a week could pass without being called. Drivers couldn’t trade on-call shifts (there weren’t enough drivers to cover them all) and they couldn’t refuse to respond to a call.

Ruling

DOL ruled that on call time was compensable during the winter because drivers couldn’t freely engage in most personal activities. Due to the frequency of the calls and the speedy response required, any personal activities were severely restricted.

However, on-call periods at other times of the year were not deemed compensable. Because the calls were so infrequent, the drivers’ personal activities weren’t as restricted.

Tags: Best practices, DOL, Employee communication, Employment tax, Hiring & training staff, IRS, Payroll