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Working out of normal hours

Jenny

We have a situation where our IT department are based in the UK and Germany and the team need to be on hand and provide support to our US offices as the central head office is located in the US - there is the need for the employees to be on-call and I would appreciate some help on what barriers we can expect to face and solutions to overcome these?

For new employee contracts - we would change the wording in their contracts to reflect the out of hours conditions?

For existing employee contracts - can we provide a change of terms and conditions and would we need to consult with the employees?

Help will be greatly appreciated!

Jenny

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  • I wouldn't necessarily seek to be re-issuing contracts or even giving new starters a new contract to cover this. Administratively, I would see this as only needing a separate letter to all current employees to inform them of the change, and then putting up a standing instruction or procedure statement to inform all future employees. This way, if changes are needed, you only need to amend the standing instruction rather than, yet again, sending everyone new contract documents.

    However, strategically and legally, this is a substantive change in terms and conditions so is going to need to be consulted upon. The biggest question your leaders will need to answer is "how much are we prepared to pay people to fulfill this new task for us?" The bigger the number, the easier the consultations will be.

    Traditionally, there are four ways to approach on-call payments:

    1. Everyone is on the rota. You only get paid if you get called out, but you get an enhanced rate of overtime.

    2. Everyone is on the rota. You get paid a modest fixed fee for being on-call then overtime if you're called out.

    3. Everyone is on the rota. You get paid a generous fixed fee for being on-call, whether you are called out or not.

    4. Only volunteers are on the rota. They get paid handsomely (usually with a salary increment) for being on-call.

    My company currently uses a mixture of 2 (for technical and support roles), 3 (for unskilled roles) and 4 (for the senior managers).
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  • I wouldn't necessarily seek to be re-issuing contracts or even giving new starters a new contract to cover this. Administratively, I would see this as only needing a separate letter to all current employees to inform them of the change, and then putting up a standing instruction or procedure statement to inform all future employees. This way, if changes are needed, you only need to amend the standing instruction rather than, yet again, sending everyone new contract documents.

    However, strategically and legally, this is a substantive change in terms and conditions so is going to need to be consulted upon. The biggest question your leaders will need to answer is "how much are we prepared to pay people to fulfill this new task for us?" The bigger the number, the easier the consultations will be.

    Traditionally, there are four ways to approach on-call payments:

    1. Everyone is on the rota. You only get paid if you get called out, but you get an enhanced rate of overtime.

    2. Everyone is on the rota. You get paid a modest fixed fee for being on-call then overtime if you're called out.

    3. Everyone is on the rota. You get paid a generous fixed fee for being on-call, whether you are called out or not.

    4. Only volunteers are on the rota. They get paid handsomely (usually with a salary increment) for being on-call.

    My company currently uses a mixture of 2 (for technical and support roles), 3 (for unskilled roles) and 4 (for the senior managers).
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