On Call Employees-Benefits

DonZ

After reading the post on Part Time Employees and Benefits, my question is does this apply to On Call Employees. We are a health care facility and a Full Time employee is one that works 36+ hours a week and is on the schedule. Being we are 24/7, permanent employees are required to work every other weekend. For this reason, many employees change their status to "On Call" and pick up shifts to their convenience without working weekends. Quite a few work 40 hrs a week.
On Call employees are not eligible for benefits and this is stated in our policies.

LFernandes

There is that word "permanent" again!! YEEEKKK!! Employees should never be called permanent as it could be used against you in court because it implys an employee contract and that the employee has the job for "Life".

In answer to your question, I would lean toward giving your on-call employees benefits if they "routinely" work 40 hours or more a week. I don't think that the Department of Labor would care how you classified your ee's but would be more interested in the number of hours they worked and if they meet the criteria. If the threshhold for being benefit eligible is 40 hours and they "routinely" work 40+ hours, you should offer them benefits because they meet the criteria and qualify.

What do your plan documents say?

LF