on call pay?

[Pray]

Please forgive me if this has been covered.. but I was wondering how much money per hour your hospital pays you to stay home on call. (OB, L and D) I never questioned this before, except I have had three days this payperiod on call, and our hospital pays 1.50 per hr. for me to sit around waiting for the phone to ring. Like a friend told me "you sit around for 1.50/hr at their beck and call? You have to respond in a half hour? They get an employee to sit around for basically nothing?" Got me thinking. Yes, this is a pretty good deal for the hospital. So, is this the norm? What do you get paid to stay home on call?

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

I work in NICU, not L&D, but at our hospital we only get $2/hour if we're on-call. I'd love to get $5+/hour, wow! But we do get doublle time if we're called in, so that's a plus. And I haven't had to work a weekend since January, so I guess I can't complain too much!

[crysobrn]

We get $2 an hour for on call and if we get called in we get time and a half. I agree that it's not a lot to sit in your house ready to go. I almost prefer to be on call at night. I just call before bed to see what it's looking like, so I can be a little more prepared. I'd much rather work for time and a half than sit home for 2bucks an hour.

[max1x]

Well, get this!

The hospital where I work in Philadelphia is planning to force us to take on call. This is being done because management has decided it is cheaper to force the staff to work overtime than it is to pay pool or agency nurses to cover holes in the schedule. My nurse manager even told me this when I pressured her for a straight answer why this was being done.

We will not be paid anything for being on call, not a dime! If we get called in we get our regular pay, plus overtime for anything over 40hrs per week.

Is it legal to force people to be on call on their days off and not pay them for it?

Also, nurses that work in the OR are paid for being on call, but us med-surg scut-monkeys will not be.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Check your contract for legality. And are you union?

[max1x]

Thanks for the reply. The short answer is: no; and no.

We have no contract to check, and we are not union. We are at the mercy of Fearless Leader, who euphemistically answers to the title of nurse manager.

Needless to say, most of the staff are very unhappy about this, and many are planning to quit if this goes through. However, most (if not all) the nurses on my unit (except me of course!!) are unwilling to speak up and complain about this. They will quietly gripe and complain amongst themselves, while continuing to kiss Fearless Leader's butt, right up until the time they quit and take their services elsewhere! I guess I can't blame them, because Fearless Leader's standard answer to complaint's like this is "well, if you don't like it, there's the door!"

For what it's worth, she (the nurse manager) is a dedicated nurse who genuinely cares about pts. and quality care; but her leadership and management skills are nonexistent, and it shows.

I don't yet know how this will play out. One small hope: house bill 834 to ban mandatory overtime recently passed the PA house of representatives. I'm not sure if it applies to "on call" though.

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

Legal or not, I sure wouldn't work there!

I googled around and found this: "Despite the efforts of the PA State Nurse's Association, there is no limit to the number of hours that a nurse, or any other employee, may be required to work, under PA law ....... Under the PA mandatory overtime laws, an employer may legally require an employee to work overtime".

Google around for more information, there's a ton of stuff you can find.

[SmilingBluEyes]

I would be getting really politically active. I wish you the best, may have to vote w/your feet. Or do like me, and go perdiem. I am so sorry.

[feminist-mama]

I'm an aide on med-surg. We get $4.00/hr for 6 hours, then we're off the hook. The aides work 8 hr shifts.

I'm stunned that on-call pay is so low for some folks! Yikes!

[MIA-RN1, RN]

Im in post-partum. We have to take 12 - 16h of on-call time per month. We get something like $2.50/h to sit home and wait for the phone to ring. and just regular pay if we have to come in. If we go over 40h, it becomes overtime.