In the previous post, we referred to the possibility of obliging an employee to answer the work phone and e-mail while on vacation. Today we will focus on the issue of the employee’s obligation to remain outside working hours and be ready to provide it in the form of on-call duty. Clients of our PRWT accounting office often ask about the on-call duty – how does it work? What is it about? Is this on-call duty payable?

Based on Article. 151⁵ of the Polish Labor Code, the employer may oblige the employee to remain on- call duty(at the workplace, at home or in another place designated by the employer). On-call duty may consist, for example, in obliging the employee to answer the business phone and e-mail while at home. We do not have a specific time frame specifically for on-call duty (how long it may be), but we must use the scope as part of the guaranteed daily and weekly rest. That is, on each working day, the employee, after guaranteeing him 11 hours of uninterrupted rest, may remain at the employer’s disposal (including the working time planned for that day) for 13 hours. The on-call duty should be made in writing (indication of the date and time range of the on-call duty, place of its performance and indication of what the employee is obliged to do – picking up a phone call, e-mails, or arriving at the employer’s office). For the time of on-call duty at home, the employee:

– does not retain the right to remuneration (if he did not work on- call duty),

– retains the right to remuneration (for the time during which he performed his duties while on call duty)

In the event of on-call duty in a place other than the employee’s home, he or she has the right to receive free time equal to the amount of on-call duty time, and if this is not possible, the employee retains the right to remuneration.

An employee may also be on-call duty on a day off, then we also remember to rest and about compensation in the case of working on- call duty (time off / remuneration for work).

In order to introduce clear rules and minimize the risk of misunderstandings, it is worth drawing up short regulations or guidelines for sending employees on-call duty (along with attachments in the form of on-call duty orders and recording of on-call duty time by employees).

After receiving the supervisor’s order, the employee is obliged to be on- call duty at the indicated time and scope. In the event of refusal to carry out such an order or violation of its rules, it is possible to impose disciplinary consequences against the employee.