You're on-call... and you AREN'T getting paid for it.

[Marty McFly]

Curious how the on-call structure works in your neck of the woods.

When you're on-call, you're pretty much stuck in town, can't booze it up, have to be able to work at a moment's notice, etc.

All this... with no pay. Isn't that a kick in the teeth?

Anyone have any insight as to how this is supposed to work? Or SHOULD work?

[adam & doctor drew]

in theory, they should be paying you enough to be on call to make it worth the occasional inconvenience.

[JoinUsForCake]

When we're on-call, we are not paid.

It pisses me off. :mad:

[TVMattNYC]

My union contract has an "on call" clause -- half pay for each hour we're "on call". Full pay (plus all the usual OT, weekend penalties, etc.) if we ARE called in.

[TVMattNYC]

For when we're NOT on call ... on our weekends:

$2.00/month for caller ID.
Ability to recognize boss' phone number before picking up: PRICELESS.

[news rookie]

for us - you're on call for a week at a time, but if you can get someone to take a night for you, go for it.

you don't get paid for being on call - but if you get called out, you get 4 hours minimum pay, regardless of if you're there for 10 minutes, or 3 hours 59 minutes. anything over four you get paid straight for what youre there for. not a bad deal.

[Ralphie the buffalo]

We have take home trucks so theoretically we are always on call. The cost savings of having that vehicle are pretty obvious.

We have an on-call crash pager we carry for a week at a time. It comes back to you every few months. This pager gets called first if the regulars get overwhelmed with breaking news. We have overnight staffing so it doesn't happen much. That person is must vulnerable during the weekend when the staffing is slimmest.

There is a minimum 3 hour call-in per page.

[ May 29, 2007, 08:14 PM: Message edited by: Ralphie the buffalo ]

[Pinkie]

We are theoretically "always on call" and should be available at a moment's notice. And we hear it if for some reason we're not. graemlins/face_banghead.gif

[Grotto]

My sister has a "real job" in the medical field. Occasionally she will be on-call over a weekend. She gets paid whether she gets a call or not. Being on-call eats into her personal time...so she is compensated.

Maybe this is a good lead-in into a thread from a few days ago about people in our biz not being ballsy enough to demand we be treated like humans?

[Clever Login Name]

In other professions, some have successfully sued their employers for not being compensated for being on-call. I imagine the labor laws vary from state to state ... but I can't see anyone in a non-union shop trying to push this issue.

[Brooklyn]

In my last job, I was on-call for three different functions. Sometimes they overlapped, sometimes they didn't. They were for a week at a time, day and night, and rotated amongst several people on each function/group.

The sucky thing was that the on-call "pay" was supposedly built into our salaries (since we weren't hourly). Definitely had some frustrating moments when trying to plan activities and such.

My current job, though, I'm hourly and am on-call 24/7. BUT, I get paid for that on-call time. It's only $1.75/hr, but figure that's about 250+ hours a paycheck. Most of the time, I don't even get paged. If I do get called back in, I get paid a minimum of 3 hours of my normal hourly amount, even if my time back in is, say, 30 minutes.

Nice to get paid on the weekends for mostly futzing around with my kids. :D

[ May 30, 2007, 08:52 AM: Message edited by: Brooklyn74 ]

[east coast producer]

Originally posted by TVMattNYC:
For when we're NOT on call ... on our weekends:

$2.00/month for caller ID.
Ability to recognize boss' phone number before picking up: PRICELESS.I heart unions. Speaking of which, we need to talk more about that.

Here, on-call shooters and reporters aren't compensated unless they come in. And then I don't believe it's anything special except for overtime, unless a manager kills one of their shifts later in the week.

Producers are supposed to give management a head's up if we intend to be out of town for the weekend.

[Signature on File]

I think it depends on if you are salaried or not. If you punch a clock, you are less likley to get "the call". Also it depends on the perks.
If you are on a pager or have a take home car with photo gear, you should be on call for anything. After all, you have gear the Company is leaving with you on your "off time". I've had take home gear for about 10 years and I smile everytime I drive the 50 mile roundtrip and look at gas prices that I am not paying for, not to speak of having to buy a car, insurance, and maintenance on a car to get to work. In 10 years, I've had maybe 2 "call-ins", and that was overtime! graemlins/icon_pray.gif

[facts]

Originally posted by Signature on File:
I smile everytime I drive the 50 mile roundtrip and look at gas prices that I am not paying for, not to speak of having to buy a car, insurance, and maintenance on a car to get to work. I've mentioned this before, but note the IRS considers that income (regardless of your on call status) and does so for every year this has been true for you. If the station starts reporting it as out-go to you (and legally it should) you're going to get stuck with an enormous retro-active tax bill.

The only thing saving you (and hundreds of other photographers) is the either don't ask don't tell policy some stations have adopted, or the simple ignorance over it.

I'm all for you enjoying the perqs of the car.. photographers don't get enough in my book, but do set aside money for the inevitable bill.

I've seen it happen, and it's not pretty.

[Grotto]

Originally posted by facts:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Signature on File:
I smile everytime I drive the 50 mile roundtrip and look at gas prices that I am not paying for, not to speak of having to buy a car, insurance, and maintenance on a car to get to work. I've mentioned this before, but note the IRS considers that income (regardless of your on call status) and does so for every year this has been true for you. If the station starts reporting it as out-go to you (and legally it should) you're going to get stuck with an enormous retro-active tax bill.

The only thing saving you (and hundreds of other photographers) is the either don't ask don't tell policy some stations have adopted, or the simple ignorance over it.

I'm all for you enjoying the perqs of the car.. photographers don't get enough in my book, but do set aside money for the inevitable bill.

I've seen it happen, and it's not pretty.</font>[/QUOTE]This is true. My wife has a work-provided car. Once a year we pay a "tax fee" for the use of the car. It is considered as "income" of sorts. It is the same principle as clothing allowances being considered as income for tax purposes. The IRS will get whatever they can!

[facts]

(slightly) more information (http://www.hrblock.com/taxes/planning/planning_101/company_car.html)

[Ralphie the buffalo]

Originally posted by facts:
I've mentioned this before, but note the IRS considers that income (regardless of your on call status) and does so for every year this has been true for you. If the station starts reporting it as out-go to you (and legally it should) you're going to get stuck with an enormous retro-active tax bill.

The only thing saving you (and hundreds of other photographers) is the either don't ask don't tell policy some stations have adopted, or the simple ignorance over it.

I'm all for you enjoying the perqs of the car.. photographers don't get enough in my book, but do set aside money for the inevitable bill.

I've seen it happen, and it's not pretty.If the station isn't already adding the value of vehicle use to your paycheck they are pretty poor business people.

I have 5 dollars a day added to my compensation for tax purposes. So every week I have 25 bucks in taxable compensation to compensate for the vehicle usage. At 15% that means I pay %4.50 in tax a week. I will take that burden gladly.

Want more info? Look on page 20 of this info packet.
http://www.unclefed.com/IRS-Forms/2006/p15b_07.pdf

There are several formulas a company can use. Ours found the most favorable for the photogs and easiest for accounting to administer..

[ May 31, 2007, 07:55 AM: Message edited by: Ralphie the buffalo ]

[facts]

Yes, it's not a terrible tax when you pay it through your paycheck; the problem is when you find out 10 years in that you should have been paying tax all along. and then it's $4.50x52x10, and that's a bummer.

[shootist]

our reporters have a rotating on-call list provided a year in advance. it is mis-used constantly.

for instance....management has stated that the on-call list will be utilized for breaking news only...NOT to cover staffing shortages due to other factors. but if one of our 2 or 3 nightbeat reporters calls in sick, a dayside reporter on-call will be held for a double shift even if there is no breaking news...or ANY news for that matter.

and then...the whole definition of "breaking news" is twisted every which way to get people in. one night a reporter was called in at 9:00pm for "severe rain" TWO HOURS AWAY. when it was pointed out that there would be no way to get it on the air (no sat op) she was told to just wait in the newsroom IN CASE something happened.

no compensation for being on call and the only compensation for coming in is a 2 for 1 comp policy. (8 hour shift---4 hours comp time).

plus the way they schedule the on-call coverage is bogus. they put two reporters on-call each week but one might be the weekend am anchor and he won't be called in on the weekend evening so it's ALWAYS the other reporter. same goes for weekend evening anchors/early morning reporters etc. etc.

our sister station had a policy a few years back where reporters got $75 for a weekend on call whether they were called in or not. our AFTRA unit just doesn't seem to want to push anything.

our photog/editor unit has no on-call policy. many of us have take-home vehicles and are "expected to be reasonably available" and that to me, though tough to enforce, is reasonable to me.

the station attempted to implement an unpaid on-call policy and mandatory overtime assignments. the contract was voted down five times until that was removed. there was no way we were going to give up/limit our free time for no compensation. whether time off is for relaxing or freelancing or partying.....i don't think we should give it up to sit and wait for a call.

there are provisions in our contract that after 4 unsuccessful attempts to cover a call-in situation the assignment desk can mandate OT on a reverse seniority basis. in 20 years...that clause has never needed to be enacted. someone will always come in.

if we are called in, we get a 4 hour minimum at double time. (if we are covering a shift where someone called in sick...it's 8 hours at time-and-a-half).

[ June 02, 2007, 06:33 AM: Message edited by: shootist ]

[Spike]

About the tax on those vehicles...

If your employer isn't taking out tax for your take-home vehicle, they are probably considering it a "qualified nonpersonal use vehicle," which is a "working benefit" of the job and isn't considered taxable income. This type of vehicle typically includes police and fire cars, delivery vans, pickup trucks, etc. that are used only minimally for personal use. Minimal personal use includes commuting to and from work. It is assumed that you are NOT using it to go to the store or to the mall, to take little Timmy to soccer practice or to transport the table you bought at the flea market to your house. I once had a chief photog tell me that the company didn't really care whether we used the cars for personal business, but that by restricting our use to company business only they didn't have to tax us on it.

But there IS a catch. For anything other than an emergency vehicle or a large truck to qualify as a nonpersonal use vehicle, the truck generally has to meet three specific conditions. One is that it has to be clearly and permanently marked with company decals or paint scheme. Another is that it either must have permanent shelving installed in the cargo area OR, in the absence of such shelving, must always be used to carry merchandise or equipment used in the job in the cargo area. Most marked news vehicles meet these two requirements. Every vehicle I ever had was clearly marked and always had gear in the back when I was driving it.

The third requirement is the problem. To qualify for the tax break, it can only have seating installed for the driver and one other person. If you take out the back seat, it qualifies. I've only had one vehicle that didn't have its back seat, and that's because I took the seat out myself (not for tax purposes, but simply to open up more room for gear).

Even so, most of these companies quietly ignore that part of the rule, and most photogs get away with ignoring it as well. If you think about it, how would the IRS know? If the company doesn't report your use of the car as income, the IRS really doesn't even have a way to know you take it home, much less that it has a back seat. And if you were to get audited and somehow they knew you had the vehicle, all you'd really have to do is take the back seat out (or fold it down and cover it with gear). Or you could simply say you don't take it home with you.

The people who generally get in difficulty over company cars are folks like executives whose company vehicles are an added perk of the job and not actually used in the job itself, or salespeople who could use practically any car for the job and who end up giving themselves away by claiming deductions for vehicle related expenses for a vehicle they don't own.

Originally posted by facts:
Yes, it's not a terrible tax when you pay it through your paycheck; the problem is when you find out 10 years in that you should have been paying tax all along. and then it's $4.50x52x10, and that's a bummer.EVEN IF this were to come up in an examination (which is highly unlikely in the case of most photogs, for the reasons above), the IRS wouldn't charge you for ten years. They can only go back three years except in certain rare cases of intentional fraud. Put another way, the statute of limitations on your tax return expires exactly three years from the date it was due. If you were audited this year, the IRS could only examine your returns for tax years 2004, 2005 and 2006, filed in April of 2005, 2006 and 2007, respectively.