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Employees On Call - following Policy?

KymmKymm 140 Posts
in HR & Employment Law Vote Up0Vote Down
Just a question for those of you who may have some employees that you use only on an "on call" basis... We want to hire a few employees that we will only use as projects arise - some may last only a week, sometimes longer..just depends. What I'm concerned with, is how we would administer some of our employee policies with those employees? Such as the absenteeism.. we currently have set guidelines as to our disciplinary actions - over 3 instances in a quarter for example would be excessive. Well, if we have an on call employee who only works maybe 2 weeks in 2 months, yet is sick at least once every "project", that will not do... can we hold him to "different" guidelines, etc. and if we can, do we have to "outline" that in their offer letter - actually put something in writing?
Or being that they are "on call", are we pretty "flexible" in our decisions on whether they are working out for us or not... will welcome your thoughts.. Thanks.


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  • marcmarc 3,126 Posts
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    You should probably work up a special policy for these folks that outlines your expectations and illustrates how they would enter your progressive discipline policies.

    If I were personally in an "On-Call" status, I would look at it as a termporary situation. I could not survive long with a hit or miss work situation and would be looking for a more permanent employment situation. If you wanted me to work tomorrow, and I had a job interview line up, guess where I will be.

    If there are enough people out there who like that kind of unsettled schedule and the work does not have a significant learning curve or training requirement, then this might work - I have a limited imagination though - and I would think the administrative and hand-holding would be a nightmare for those in charge of the nitty gritty.
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  • Down_the_MiddleDown_the_Middle 771 Posts
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    Kymm:
    I would be careful about trying to craft a different absence policy for your "temp" or on-call staff. You'll run into disparate treatment issues that'll be difficult to justify. Having numerous PRN/on-call/perdiem staff in healthcare, we apply the same absence policies to those folks. If they're scheduled and fail to report, it constitutes an absence. Granted, someone who works infrequently and is absent each of those times may take awhile to reach some disciplinary measures, but that can be rectified by not having those folks "on-call" for you to use. It's that simple. Someone who is in on-call status and is continually unavailable soon is taken off the on-call list. I've always felt this was a better method of handling these occasional staff vs. creating a separate policy for them. For what it's worth................ Good luck with your issue.
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