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USA Operations Centers After -Hours Emergencies Policy May 2017
As this policy is reviewed, please note the following State/Area for which exceptions exist:
Not Applicable
This policy applies to work related emergency telephone calls outside of normal work hours made to employees and emergency situations that require employees to be called into the office outside of normal work hours.
Definitions
Non-exempt/Overtime Eligible Employees: are subject to overtime requirements as a result of federal and state wage and hour laws and therefore, receive pay for overtime hours worked.
Exempt Employees: are employees who, because of their positional duties and responsibilities are “exempt” from the overtime provisions of federal and state (as applicable) wage and hour laws and as such are not paid overtime.
Who is eligible?
Exempt employees are not eligible for "emergency phone call pay" or "emergency call-into the office pay".
Non-exempt/overtime eligible employees are eligible for "emergency phone call pay" and "emergency call-into the office pay", and required to record their hours worked and are paid for all time worked.
Emergency phone calls are:
Urgent,
Work related,
Critical in nature, and
Necessary because the situation must be resolved by the employee before their normal assigned work hours resume.
Emergency phone calls could also be related to preventative or corrective situations.
How are After-Hours Emergency Phone Calls paid?
Non-exempt/overtime eligible employees are paid their “overtime rate of pay”, or time and a half, for the accumulated time for all emergency phone calls per day.
The minimum accumulated time calculated per day for all emergency phone calls actually received that day will be one hour.
A day begins at 12:01 am and ends 24 hours later at midnight.
The start and end time of each phone call must be entered using the "AH Emergency Phone Call" pay codes on timesheet.
Time recorded for “after hours emergency phone call pay” purposes does NOT count towards the calculation of hours worked for overtime purposes for that week, since this time is already paid at the employee’s “overtime rate of pay”.
Overtime hours may be reported on the paystub without the employee having worked more than 40 hours that week or 8 hours that day (depending on state laws for overtime).
Even though non-exempt/overtime eligible employees, for example, are not eligible for "after hours emergency phone call pay" when customers / clients or business partners call to provide information after hours, they are eligible for pay at their regular rate of pay for the time spent talking on the phone. Time spent on “non-emergency” phone calls counts as time worked and must be recorded on the timesheet. This time also counts as time worked towards the calculation of overtime for the week (or day depending on the state).
What is an After-Hours Emergency Call-Into the Office Situation? "After Hours emergency call-into the office" refers to unplanned instances where employees are called into a work location during off hours to handle an emergency situation that cannot wait to be addressed during regular work hours.
After Hours emergency call-into the office includes:
Call-into the office time outside of normal work hours to deal with an emergency situation that must be addressed immediately. Delaying action until regular work hours could result in serious consequences.
Emergency unscheduled work to restore/repair systems, equipment, facilities, etc., outside of regular work hours.
After Hours emergency call-into the office does not include:
Pre-arranged or scheduled work on weekends, holidays, late evenings or early mornings, etc.
Pre-arranged or scheduled non-emergency preventive or corrective maintenance, on systems, equipment, facilities, etc., during late evening or early morning hours, or on weekends, or holidays, etc.
Call-into the office time on any day of the week, to include call-into the office time on weekends, evenings, early mornings, or holidays, etc., to perform regular non-emergency work as a result of heavy workloads, employee absences, etc.
Call-into the office time immediately before or after regular scheduled work hours to address an emergency situation.
How is an After-Hours Emergency Call-Into the Office Situation Paid? Non-exempt/overtime eligible employees are paid their “overtime rate of pay”, or time and a half, for all time spent working in an “after hours emergency call-into the office” situation outside of regular work hours.
The minimum time paid per day for all emergency call-into the office situations will be two hours.
A day begins at 12:01 am and ends 24 hours later at midnight
Emergency call-into the office time begins when the employee leaves home and continues until the employee arrives back home.
The actual time spent from the time the employee leaves home to the time the employee returns to their home should be recorded using the AH Emergency Call-Into Office pay code on the timesheet.
Time recorded using the AH Emergency Call-Into Office pay code does NOT count towards the calculation of hours worked for overtime purposes for that week, since this time is already paid at the employee’s “overtime rate of pay”.
Overtime hours may be reported on the paystub without the employee having worked more than 40 hours that week or 8 hours that day (depending on state laws for overtime).
Holiday Pay and After-Hours Emergency Phone Call Pay
Effective May 22, 2017 employees are eligible for "Holiday" and "Holiday Premium Pay" if they receive an after-hours emergency phone call during a day in which they are assigned phone duty that is also a holiday. The time must be recorded on the timesheet as Holiday Worked. The AH Emergency Phone Call pay code should not be used on a Company or a National Holiday.
Note: Use of the Holiday Worked pay code will not apply a minimum of 1 hour for After-Hours Emergency Phone Call pay. The employee must record a minimum of 1 hour of Holiday Worked on the timesheet on the Company or National Holiday. Comments can be used to indicate the exact times applicable to the after-hours emergency phone calls.
Holiday Pay and After-Hours Emergency Call-Into the Office Pay
Effective May 22, 2017 employees are eligible for “Holiday” and “Holiday Premium Pay” if an after-hours emergency call-into the office situation occurs on a Company or National Holiday. The time must be recorded on the timesheet as Holiday Worked. The AH Emergency Call-Into Office pay code should not be used on a Company or a National Holiday.
Note: Use of the Holiday Worked pay code will not apply a minimum of 2 hours for After-Hours Emergency Call-Into Office pay. The employee must record a minimum of 2 hours of Holiday Worked on the timesheet on the Company or National Holiday. Comments can be used to indicate the exact times applicable to the after-hours emergency call-into office situation.
Office Closed and After-Hours Emergency Call-Into the Office
Effective May 22, 2017 employees are eligible for “Office Closed” and "Office Closed" Premium Pay if an after-hours emergency call-into office situation occurs when an office is declared officially closed. The time must be recorded on the timesheet as Office Closed Worked. The AH Emergency Call-Into Office pay code should not be used during the time in which an office is officially closed.
Note: Use of the Office Closed Worked pay code will not apply a minimum of 2 hours for After-Hours Emergency Call-Into Office pay. The employee must record a minimum of 2 hours of Office Closed Worked on the timesheet. Comments can be used to indicate the exact times applicable to the after-hours emergency call-into office situation.
Office Closed and After-Hours Emergency Phone Call
It should be extremely rare to handle an after-hours emergency phone call situation when an office is officially closed during regular work hours. When an office is officially closed, where possible, employees may need to work from an alternate location including working from home. Calls received while working from a different location, including calls received while working from home, are generally similar to the calls received during regular work hours, and are therefore, not considered after-hours emergency phone calls. However, if an after-hours emergency phone call is handled during the time an office is officially closed, non-exempt/overtime eligible employees are not eligible for both “After-Hours Emergency Phone Call Pay” and “Office Closed Premium Pay”. Employees will receive only “After-Hours Emergency Phone Call Pay”. The time worked handling the after-hours emergency phone call should be coded as AH Emergency Phone Call on the timesheet.
Note: If a true after-hours emergency phone call occurs during the time the office is officially closed, and the time handling the after-hours emergency phone call falls within the employee’s regularly scheduled work hours, the employee is only eligible for “After-Hours Emergency Phone Call Pay” and is not eligible for “Office Closed Pay” or “Office Closed Premium Pay” for the time paid under the After-Hours Emergency Phone Call Pay policy.
Non-exempt/overtime eligible employees should correctly complete a timesheet that records all time worked.
Questions about recording time on the timesheet should be discussed with the employee's management and Human Resources & Employee Care Services
The manager should explain the "After Hours Emergency Phone Call" and "After Hours Emergency Call-Into Office" policies to eligible employees. The manager should also review the non-exempt/overtime eligible employee's timesheet for accuracy and timely submission.
As needed, Human Resources should provide assistance to managers and employees in understanding and applying the policy.