this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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I'm in Europe, and work for an American company. After a few issues in production, they tried to implement an on-call requirement for employees to check the alerts during their out of work hours (5am to 10pm or something stupid like that). I just reminded them that my country has the "Right to disconnect" law, which protects us from having to work outside our required hours.
They changed it to volunteer basis. I refuse to volunteer (because my off time is my time).
When I was younger, I also though I'd be cool to work in America, but once you learn a bit about their conditions, it's a big nope. Much better lifestyle in small cities with an average salary in EU and the 23 days vacation + 13 - 14 bank holidays. Mental health checks out. ๐
About the Prod on calls, even if you "volunteer", depending on the country and kind of job, they have to paid those "on call" hours even if there's no calls at the end, and if there's work required, the pay is higher.
I'm like you, I wouldn't exchange my free time no matter what. ๐ค
Years ago now I was asked to be on call for a week, 24/7 outside working hours. I was told it would be paid. Being naive I thought I'd be paid at my normal rate.
Turns out the on call rate was based on the likelihood of being called and this project was deemed to be low, after tax I got less than ยฃ10 extra for the whole week. It was something like 14 pence an hour.
They had a whole load of restrictions on my life as well, couldn't be more than an hour from the office, couldn't be drunk, had to answer the phone within a minute at all times and be able to get on my laptop within 5 minutes.
Refused to do it again after that first week and they ended up having to pay a contractor ยฃ400/week instead.
Were you in the UK? if so they robbed you. They need to pay at least minimum wage in the UK even for on call. You are also allowed rest breaks. What they did was unbelievably criminal. Hell if that overtime included times where you were asleep and you were still on call they still need to pay you the National minimum wage for those hours as well.
Only part that wasn't illegal is the extra restrictions, as you are still working so you can't exactly treat it as a day off.
sounds like illegal indeed, you could've sue them to the work administration or whatever there is in the UK (I've worked there, but never had any issues on the working department... there's so little unemployment that if you're unhappy just go somewhere else ๐คทโโ๏ธ)