Salaried, Oncall, Work Days

[FancyFlutterby]

What is the name of your state? California

I'm a systems analyst for a medical laboratory. I'm salaried and I usually work an 8 hour day. Every 4 weeks, I'm on call. There is no compensation for the time I spend on calls in the middle of the night, or for time that I'm required to come in to work "off hours".

Recently our entire network went down during a week that I was on call. I was required to work a 14 hour day, and then received 4 calls through the night due to havoc the network caused, resulting in my going to work 3 hours earlier than usual - with virtually no sleep.

My two questions:

1) Since I'm salaried, is my company required to compensate for the time I spend on the phone helping computer users through their difficulties, and/or for time I'm required to go into work "off hours"?

2) Am I required to go to work when I've gone sleepless due to work issues? Isn't there some health and safety regulations to protect me?

Thank you.

 

[Beth3]

1) Since I'm salaried, is my company required to compensate for the time I spend on the phone helping computer users through their difficulties, and/or for time I'm required to go into work "off hours"? Salaried is a pay method - it has no legal standing. The correct term is exempt (which literally means exempt from overtime pay.) Assuming your position is correctly classifed as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act, there are no circumstances in which your employer is obligated to pay you overtime, regardless of how many hours you work.

2) Am I required to go to work when I've gone sleepless due to work issues? Isn't there some health and safety regulations to protect me? Yes and no respectively. A few specific occupations have rest period requirements due to public safety concens (truck drivers, airline pilots, etc.) but there are no such requirements for the vast majority of jobs.