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4 Out of Hours emergency cover expectations

25 Jun, 2019 09:35

My church is a large premises with many rooms hired out during the day and evening. We have several part time staff (mostly cleaning/care taking) to support this as well as a part time centre coordinator who deals with bookings and supervises the other staff and day to day operations.

An issue has cropped up regarding out of hours emergencies and how they are covered. Most church members believe it is the job of the coordinator to deal with out of hours issues, but nothing is explicitly stated in the employment contract or job description. The job holder is constantly contacted out of hours about all manor of issues (many minor) and has reached a stage of mostly 'sticking to agreed hours'. This is not a highly paid role at a little over £10.50 per hour so I'm not confident it would be considered reasonable for this person to be expected to be the first call in most circumstance.

Would a clause in a contract be enforceable if it existed? Because there are no other paid staff, the management structure effectively consists of volunteers, mostly elderly, and getting any rota of 'on call' people is proving elusive.

I want to get a sense of the legality, or otherwise, of the on call expectation before exploring other possible options. Any advice or tips from previous experience welcomed.

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Keith | 0 Posts

25 Jun, 2019 09:45

I do not believe you can successfully require this individual to work out of hours as you are.

Yes you could contract explicitly for on-call arrangements but at a suitable fee. At the very least you would need to ensure all working time was paid at least the NMW. (You may not be doing this at the moment given the frequent out of hours calls)

It would be a change to contract however and if the fee/rate wasn't sufficient I can see them turning it down. What then?

Historically these things were done by volunteers but as you have turned this into a semi commercial model it is likely you will need to budget for an increase in staff costs to cover these out of hour events.
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Richard Lock | 0 Posts

25 Jun, 2019 11:38

In reply to Keith:

Thanks Keith. Certainly that's in line with my current thinking. Of course, money is a real issue for what is effectively a small charity, so a classic dichotomy there.

Maybe someone has experience of a creative solution that resolves or lowers that dichotomy.
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Keith | 0 Posts

25 Jun, 2019 11:42

In reply to Richard Lock:
The chances are the amount you would need to pay them may not be huge - its just they feel you are taking advantage at the moment
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Robey | 0 Posts

25 Jun, 2019 15:55

At first glance, it would seem that the problem here is less likely to be the out-of-hours responding than it is the nature of what the coordinator is being called to respond to.

If it was a burst pipe, I suspect he/she would be more than happy to rush to get things fixed and under control. The problem has only arisen because he/she is being called about trivial things that should either wait until the next day or should go to someone else.

You may be able to solve the problem by (1) having a dedicated emergency line mobile phone, only switched on between certain hours and which can therefore be passed over to someone else when the coordinator isn't available, and (2) applying a fee to hirers if they call the emergency line for something that isn't an emergency. If the problems come from within the church membership, then individuals can be spoken to on a case-by-case basis until it's understood that Christ's instruction was that we should "serve one another", not have one poor person running around serving everyone else.
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