If you have employees working either on call or on standby, it's important to be aware of the rules for these, as the types of shifts can have different rates and allowances depending on the day of the week, working hours and form. Read more about on-call and on-call shifts here.
What is on-call duty?
On-call duty means that the employee is obliged to be available at or outside the workplace and can be called upon. In this case, if a company needs employees to be available outside the company's normal working hours, it can enter into an agreement with the employees that they must be available at short notice.
You are not on call if you have no obligation to be available. If you get a call outside of working hours without an appointment, you are on call.
What is the function of an on-call shift?
On-call and on-call cover the same work function, although there are differences.
If you want your employees to be available, you need to agree with them that they are available and can be called in outside of normal working hours.
Employees who are called in shell Have a daily rest period where they do not work. This period should be 11 consecutive hours. The rest period must be taken outside the workplace.
In special cases, the rest period can be reduced from 11 hours to 8 hours. This is stated in Danish Working Environment Authority Executive Order on rest periods and days off etc.
Rest time is interrupted if the employee is called out to work. This applies both when the employee is called out and when the employee is required to perform work at home. The interruption begins when the employee is called out and does not end until the employee returns home or stops working.
What do you need to be aware of?
Rates
There are different rates for on-call and call-out allowances depending on which collective agreement the employee has. That's why it's important to know the difference when signing the agreement.
- A normal call-out is when the employee is called out outside of normal working hours and it happens without any prior agreement. This type has one rate.
- If you are on on-call duty, you have a contractual obligation to stay at home or close to home in case you are called out. In other words, the employee must be available should a call-out become necessary. This type has a different rate.
- When on call during an on-call shift, the on-call allowance is cancelled and the normal agreed hourly wage is paid in accordance with the provisions of the relevant collective agreement, so this is a third type of rate.
Rates may also vary on weekdays and public holidays according to the relevant collective agreement.
- When an employee is required by agreement to be available during on-call periods that only include Sundays and public holidays and/or in the period from the end of normal working hours on Friday to the beginning of normal working hours on Monday, one rate may be paid per hour from the beginning of that pay week.
- For on-call duty outside the above periods, employees may be paid a different hourly rate from the beginning of that pay week.
Rounding rule
When on call, employees are paid for full hours and at least a 4-hour call-out allowance. This means that if an employee is called out during an on-call shift and only works 1 hour, the employee will be paid for 4 hours. It is also rounded up to whole hours, so if the 4th hour is exceeded by 10 minutes, it is rounded up to 5 hours.
The rounding rule generally applies across collective agreements, but employers should be aware of the individual employee's collective agreement when concluding the on-call agreement.
Keep track of variation in allowances and rates
If your organisation uses on-call and on-call shifts, all employee allowances must be registered and accounted for. We strongly encourage you to be aware of your employees' collective labour agreements when dealing with on-call and on-call on-call shifts.
You may already have a system in place to keep track of employee rates, but if you want to streamline these registrations, this can be done with digital administration.
Intempus’ digital system utilises both automatic hourly rounding and registrations for on-call shifts and the different types of rates. We are confident that our system can handle the registrations that are necessary for the company in question.
With Intempus, you can create your own allowances with name, factor, price and unit, and then the employee can register the allowance so it can be invoiced and transferred to the payslip.
Would you like to learn more about digital problem solving? Then don't hesitate to give us a call at +45 26390400. You are also welcome to book a free, no-obligation demo to learn more about the system and how we can meet your specific needs:
Sources: Labour Inspectorate, The Building and Construction Agreement 2021-2024, Collective labour agreement for security companies 2020-2023
