need advise

Welcome to allnurses.com. I moved your post to a more appropriate Forum. Good luck!

Suebird :)

Is on call legal?

I'm sure it is. Esp if you knew on call was a requirement when you signed up for the job,but you still took the job.

im not a legal gal, though, so i dont know the specifics of the legality of it all?

I did not agree to on call when I was hired 6 years ago. As a matter of fact we used to get incentives to come in such as call back pay(two hours salary plus hours worked) if we came in. Then it was cut out and we were not allowed to call it "On Call " but had to call it "Stand By". Which leads me to believe it is not a job requirement but a request. It happens all the time. On days I am scheduled to work, I may get called off and asked to be on Stand by. You can say no, but it is held against you in a personal way. No one says no. Today I worked. I am off tommorrow. The assistant nurse manager ask me if I would be on call (She is supposed to be on call). I said no. I am sure I will be punished in some form or another.

Thanks for the reply,

Nancy

i would suggest calling your labor board.

best of luck.

leslie

We have "on call". Its used when census is low. Like you we get 2.00 per hour to stay home. But i guess its better than not getting anything and having to stay home "in case".

I'm fairly certain "on call" is quite legal as long as they are paying you for it. In my facility, nurses may be cancelled from time to time due to the census, but they are not on call at all. We have often wished we had such a system in place to protect us when a scheduling mishap has occurred. We get cancelled according to employment status... prn first, then part-time, then full time. The full time nurses almost never get cancelled and if I ever get cancelled I think its great (like playing hooky from school:) However, if they called me back and said they really needed me after they cancelled me, my conscience would demand that I go in despite not technically being on call. I know how it is to work short on the floor and I could not do that to my coworkers. You mentioned possibly being punished for not picking up an extra call day. That is absolutely wrong. If they want to ask that ya'll be on call when you are cancelled and pay you for being on stand by, I think that is a great solution to some of the staffing issues that plague most nursing facilities. But your days off are yours to do with as you please and no one can force you to be responsible for their scheduled days.

I do believe on call is legal. In minnesota, all contract nurses have on call as part of the contract. For example, our contract restricted the on calls to 12 per year. I always liked them cuz it was like playing hooky from work. Hope this helps!

AH, you need to first check with your job requirement ( it is in writing), and then check with the state labor board if it is not in your job contract. I have never accepted a job that demanded call time. my response has been "If I am scheduled , I am there with bells on, but otherwise I have other obligationsto which i am just as prompt". Never understood how we as a profession could be so abused when we have such a shortage. ( ie... there are jobs everywhere for us)

On call for us means home without any pay, I believe we can use personal time if we want to make it up.

However...if we do get called in it is double time.