What Could the Employer in the Question Above Have Done

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Examlex · Accepted Answer

The Answer is To reduce the probability that compensation could be due, the employer must make the on- call time as convenient and as non-burdensome as possible for the employee. Employers should (1)provide a cell phone, beeper or pager rather than require the employee use or supply their own; (2)allow on-call time to be spent outside of the work place; (3)limit the amount of calls, or pages; (4)give the employee a reasonable amount of time to properly respond; (5)allow calls to be handled over the phone or on a computer as much as possible; and (6)avoid disciplining isolated instances of late or non-responses.
Restrictions may certainly be imposed however. Requiring that the employee remain within a realistic distance from the worksite would be reasonable should there be a possibility that the employee might physically have to come into work. This would depend on the type of job involved. Since these employees are emergency responders, it would not be possible for them to be 500 miles away from work, and be required to come in within a half hour. Restricting alcohol use during on-call time is also deemed reasonable because the necessity to obtain information from a lucid person protects the company and other stakeholders.

What Could the Employer in the Question Above Have Done

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