Employees assigned on-call duty must be paid for telephone consultations

Employees who are assigned on-call duties must be paid for telephone consultations during the times they are on call.

Article 9.01,On-Call, of the UNA Provincial Collective Agreement defines on-call duty as “any period during which an Employee is not on regular duty and during which the Employee is on-call and must be reasonably available to respond without undue delay to any request to report for duty.”

Article 9.08, Telephone Consultation, says that “when an Employee, who has been assigned on-call duty, is consulted by telephone and is authorized to handle patient/resident/client matters without returning to the workplace, such Employee shall be paid the overtime rate for the total accumulated time spent on telephone consultation(s), and corresponding required documentation, during the on-call period.”

In addition, Article 9.08 states that “if telephone consultation has been provided by the Employee and the total accumulated time spent on such telephone consultation(s) and corresponding required documentation, during the on-call period, is less than 30 minutes, the Employee shall be compensated at the overtime rate for 30 minutes.”

For more information, or to address a problem being paid for telephone consultations during on-call periods, call your UNA Local Executive or Labour Relations Officer at 1-800-252-9394.