On Call working hours - getting not enough sleep.

[JamieHanslip]

Hi
My company put us on call every 6-7weeks. Originally we would do this from our homes where we would answer phone and provide customer support. At the weekends we would go out should any calls arise as there are no other staff working. Our on call hours are 8.30am to 12.00 at night from Friday @ 5pm to the following Friday @ 5pm And are expected to answer phone straight away and emails within 15 mins. We are paid extra for any time doing support calls outside of office hours at 1.5 x hours ( taken as time off at a later date). We are also paid £150 for being on call.
Lateley are company, due to them being horrible by threatening redundancies have lost four staff, one they fired and took back on lower paid we believe. This means we now have new trainee staff that will take years before going on call and also reduced workforce to take any support calls/normal work during the day.
Now when we are on call we have to stay up until 12 but then have to go out to do support call/normal work and be on site at 8am the following morning. Most of the time we have to drive for 2-3 hours meaning we are only getting 5-6 hours sleep.
When we raised this with the company they said go to bed at a time to get 8 hours sleep but use an app on phone to wake us should any support emails come in or phone rings.
I feel we still do not get a proper nights sleep, and if a call comes in I am woken. It also wakes our partners which is unfair. The company are also saying that if we don't wake up and miss an important support call we will be reprimanded so most of us just stay up out of fear.
how do we legally stand on this?

Regards
Jamie

[MIKE770]

Re: On Call working hours - getting not enough sleep.

My god - use to be on call even after a days work all night regardless , and call out pay £1.00 per call out be it 1 hour or 5 hours, use to hope another call out whilst out ( By the way minus tax and insurance and no fee for standby), simple answer is find a job which you are happy.

As far as firing somebody then as you state take them back on lower pay must be an employment tribunal case of course unless the person accepts ( which seems to be silly)

sure somebody with more knowledge will comment soon.

ACAS.ORG.UK

[Kati]

Re: On Call working hours - getting not enough sleep.

tagging [MENTION=51026]Ula[/MENTION]

[ULA]

Re: On Call working hours - getting not enough sleep.

Can I ask a couple of questions to help me get an overall picture of your working hours before I provide some guidance?

In the weeks when you are not on call what is your standard working week?
On the weeks when you are on call are you obliged to stay at home for the whole week or do you do to the office for your normal working day then you are "on-call" at home for the designated time period 8.30am to mid-night?
Do you get any days off in that "on-call" week?

[JamieHanslip]

Re: On Call working hours - getting not enough sleep.

Hi ula

thanks for replying see see the answers to your questions below

Can I ask a couple of questions to help me get an overall picture of your working hours before I provide some guidance?

In the weeks when you are not on call what is your standard working week?

48 - 60 hours if you include driving. Our company doesn't include driving as part of the working day even if we have to drive 2 hours each way.

On the weeks when you are on call are you obliged to stay at home for the whole week or do you do to the office for your normal working day then you are "on-call" at home for the designated time period 8.30am to mid-night?

we are field engineers and are based from home so we will go to the office occasionally where we would have to work 8 hours. The office is about 2 hours from my house in rush hour. Generally we are out fixing and installing stuff sometimes staying in hotels if to far away. When on call we are asked to stay at home in the first instance and answer calls from 8.30 until 12, we are often given work to do at home like CAD drawings or survey write ups. The problem arises when there's not enough engineers to perform the normal daily duties and any call outs that come in, so often we are asked to go out when on call to call outs or normal daily duties. This means we stayed up until 12 to answer the phone and then be up early at 5.30am next morning to drive or catch a train to site. We have lost 3 engineers due to the companies attitude towards us so now even now more streatched.

Do you get any days off in that "on-call" week?

no we are on call Friday to Friday

[ULA]

Re: On Call working hours - getting not enough sleep.

The circumstances that you describe are looking at how they fit or don't against the Working Time Regulations (WTR) can you confirm whether or not you have opted out of these?

From a contractual perspective - what is says in your contract of employment - are you deemed to be based from an office location or at you home based?

From what you have said so far I am forming the view that there may be an issue in that your company is not complying with the regulations in regard to your travel time to and from your last customer each day and secondly in the required rest breaks between the end of your "on-call period" at mid-night and your start time in the morning.

If you can just let me know the answer to the further two questions then that would really help.

[JamieHanslip]

Re: On Call working hours - getting not enough sleep.

Hi

Answers in bold below - thanks

The circumstances that you describe are looking at how they fit or don't against the Working Time Regulations (WTR) can you confirm whether or not you have opted out of these?

Opted out

From a contractual perspective - what is says in your contract of employment - are you deemed to be based from an office location or at you home based?

Based at home

From what you have said so far I am forming the view that there may be an issue in that your company is not complying with the regulations in regard to your travel time to and from your last customer each day and secondly in the required rest breaks between the end of your "on-call period" at mid-night and your start time in the morning.

If you can just let me know the answer to the further two questions then that would really help.

[ULA]

Re: On Call working hours - getting not enough sleep.

Thank you.

Although you have opted-out of the WTR you are still protected by limits on daily and weekly working hours and rest breaks so your employer must comply with these. The ones that are particularly relevant to what you have detailed are:

Daily Rest - An adult worker is entitled to a rest period of not less than eleven consecutive hours in each 24-hour period during which they work for their employer.
Weekly Rest - An adult worker shall be entitled to either (a) two uninterrupted rest periods each of not less than 24 hours in each 14-day period during which they work for their employer; or (b)one uninterrupted rest period of not less than 48 hours in each such 14-day period,

Allowing staff to work excessively long hours might cause other legal problems like breach of health and safety rules or the duty not to injure staff. The opt-out does not remove these duties.

Just so you are aware you can cancel your opt-out agreement whenever you want - even if it’s part of your employment contract. You must give your employer at least 7 days’ notice although you may have to give more notice (up to 3 months) if you have a written opt-out agreement.