On-Call Time

Time that an employee is "on-call" may, under some circumstances, be considered as work time. The use of on-call time is fairly widespread. Generally, if the employee is on-call but can effectively use his or her time for their own purposes, then the time will not be considered work time. Courts look to a variety of factors to decide if on-call time is work time. For example, the frequency of the call outs, the expected response time, any restrictions on how far an employee may travel away from home, the ability of the employee to switch shifts, and the duration of the call out. On-call time must be assessed on a case-by-case basis and there is no way of describing a rule that will apply in every circumstance.