Is standby considered overtime?

PatchTuesday

PatchTuesday

Expert Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2015
Messages
2,669
Reaction score
1,231
Location
Cape Town
Not to get into too much detail but looking to see if anyone can point me in the right direction for the thread title + holywalloftext

Contract is generic for the most part (you'll work overtime where required). The issue is the business feels that time for time is fair and if all you doing is carrying a phone to answer what's the problem with that.

It seems like they think if you over threshold you automatically become a slave that just has to bend over backwards on a whim without compensation except for when you actually work and that's just time back...and just be grateful you have a job.

The current situation is standby Friday-Monday with 4 hours on-site on a Saturday (on rotation, so split between 4 people so each person has to work atleast one weekend a month) to get one full working day off (everyone agreed and is happy with that) however they want us to have standby the entire week, essentially 24-7

What I'm asking is what does the law say they can do and what can we do in this situation.
I think the general consensus is that if we were being fairly compensated it wouldn't be a problem but what is fair compensation

Thanks
 
Not at my company unfortunately
Some companies do pay a small standby allowance
 
They have to at least cover your petrol, in our case we get back R3.80/l or something like that
 
Standby has never been deemed as overtime in any capacity I was employed, and when you do get called in it is deemed as an emergency, and it would only be considered as overtime when appropriately approved as such.
 
Also depends how much you earn, as soon as you hit the threshold you are entitled to nothing whatsover which is very unfair to us

RETRENCHMENT PAYOUTS IN THE COVID-19 CONTEXT | Labourwise - The Employer's Choice

Short-term interventions, temporary lay-off, short time and pay cuts, may no longer be appropriate - retrenchment? But what payments are employees entitled to if retrenched?
www.labourwise.co.za www.labourwise.co.za

However, the law clearly states that overtime may not be forced on anyone. Ever. Except in certain industries like been a Doctor etc
 
Law also says you may not do more than 10hrs a week standby
 
animehero said:
IT + Hospitality = nightmare to navigate, because everything is always an emergency.
Click to expand...

It is best to query HR, some companies are process heavy, and rightly so, because they are doing things according to the book, but do get clarity on the matter with your HR department.
 
It is only overtime if you get called out. The way I've seen it done is that you are paid an allowance for being available and your travel expenses covered if you must travel plus overtime pay for when you actually do go out.
 
R13... said:
It is only overtime if you get called out. The way I've seen it done is that you are paid an allowance for being available and your travel expenses covered if you must travel plus overtime pay for when you actually do go out.
Click to expand...
With WFH it sounds like we just going to work for free
 
The kak is let's say you on standby Mon evening from 5PM - 10PM. Now you cannot go clubbing, drinking, whatever because if you vrek gesuip while on standby you in kak.

So for those 5 hrs if the phone never rings you were on high alert for nothing. That's BS. They should PAY you for those 5 hrs even if you didn't receive a single ticket / phone call.

Some people should never be bosses.
 
R13... said:
It is only overtime if you get called out. The way I've seen it done is that you are paid an allowance for being available and your travel expenses covered if you must travel plus overtime pay for when you actually do go out.
Click to expand...

With us at work you only get paid overtime from the time you leave home and return home. And only if you earn less than R17633 per month
 
Iamn0tageek said:
The kak is let's say you on standby Mon evening from 5PM - 10PM. Now you cannot go clubbing, drinking, whatever because if you vrek gesuip while on standby you in kak.

So for those 5 hrs if the phone never rings you were on high alert for nothing. That's BS. They should PAY you for those 5 hrs even if you didn't receive a single ticket / phone call.

Some people should never be bosses.
Click to expand...
Exactly, welcome to South Africa
I had a job in the 90s where I was on standby 24/7 365 days a year.
Never got a single cent for been on standby
 
Iamn0tageek said:
The kak is let's say you on standby Mon evening from 5PM - 10PM. Now you cannot go clubbing, drinking, whatever because if you vrek gesuip while on standby you in kak.

So for those 5 hrs if the phone never rings you were on high alert for nothing. That's BS. They should PAY you for those 5 hrs even if you didn't receive a single ticket / phone call.

Some people should never be bosses.
Click to expand...
Yeah thats consensus. While the weekend standby gets you a day off, they want you to be on high alert the entire week too
 
I had a position where we did standby. IIRC we got payed double for standby hours, I could be wrong. Either way it was easy money for just being on call.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X