OZ mechanics ON CALL allowance?

[AUcooler]

Hi Guys

Im currently trying to sort out some confusion with my employer regards on call rates and allowances. My employer believes that the correct rate is $120/w for being on call, and 2hrs at x2 for each call. Ive been telling them for some time that for the past 30 years ive been payed 4hrs MIN at OT rates for each call. I think they are trying to exploit clause 26.6 in the Modern Award(MA000025).

MA000025 - http://www.cwuvic.asn.au/documents/t...Award_2010.pdf

Could some of the OZ mechanics help me out by posting what is the current going rate for "ON CALL" allowance? and what are the minimum hours you are re-imbursed for each call out. If it helps im currently working in the commercial refrigeration and air conditioning industry.

Regards

AUcooler

[paul_h]

Was getting ~$80 standby allowance.
As far as what minimum hours paid in the event of a call out, it depends in what the company charges minimum to customers doesn't it?

Like if you companies rates are minimum 4 hrs charged to customer, then you should get minimum 4 hrs pay. But if they only charge minimum 2hrs or 3hrs, then that's what you'd get right?

[Tesla]

I have always been paid a minimum 4 hours at double in Ausie plus the inconvenience weekly fee. But really it depends on what you sign up for and agree to with your boss. If you don't like it don't do call out. There were a few companies in NZ who expected call outs to be done and paid normal rates for only the hours worked on site, you could imagine how much trouble they had when customers complained of unattended calls - the techs just switched off their phones. But you have to ask the question - why do the companies let us take a vehicle home? they could just make us pick it up in the morning and drop it off at night. Most of us even get to use the vehicle for personal use. Some times we might take things for granted. There are a few companies that don't get paid 4 H at double from customers but still pay the tech that much and look at it on the whole as a service.

[AUcooler]

Was getting ~$80 standby allowance.
As far as what minimum hours paid in the event of a call out, it depends in what the company charges minimum to customers doesn't it?

This is not completly correct. In 2009 the Australian government merged many of the previous awards in order to clarify some minimum wages and working standards. They called this the "National Employment Standard" or NES. This comprises of a two page document that an employer is legally bound to give to any new employee or risk procecution. Anyway the NES is linked to a "Modern Award" and in our case(Refrigeration and Air Mechanics) this is MA000025 which is linked above. Overtime rates are outlined in section 26. The trap though is that when you are "on call" and carry out a service call, are you on "standby" or on "overtime". I believe we would be on overtime as we have already surpassed our minimum 38hr week.

[AUcooler]

I have always been paid a minimum 4 hours at double in Ausie plus the inconvenience weekly fee. But really it depends on what you sign up for and agree to with your boss. If you don't like it don't do call out

I believe this is correct, except that doing, or not doing "on call" is always optional, and is generally an excepted as part of the job.

[Magoo]

So what was the personal contract agreement that you signed on starting with employer. Changing details could get messy.
Options are the on-call fee per seven days, next the fee to accept a call out, generally here a minimum charge is 2 hours at double time, any extra hours a same rate. Stand-by-fee / callout is minimum 120.00 dollars per 5 day week.
Respectly suggest you don't bite the hand that feeds you, transport, mobile phones, non-productive time, uniforms. The list goes on and on.
If your employer has no clients after hours, you stop earning dollars, so keep everything in perspective. a 2 x way street.

[AUcooler]

Respectly suggest you don't bite the hand that feeds you, transport, mobile phones, non-productive time, uniforms. The list goes on and on.
If your employer has no clients after hours, you stop earning dollars, so keep everything in perspective. a 2 x way street.

Spare me the lecture on costs. Im well aware of the costs and benefits. Ive been in the trade since 1979 working in commercial refrigeration, industrial chillers, ran my own company for ten years. About 7 years ago myself and my family had had enough of me never being home due to work commitments. So we left the city and moved to the country for a sea change. Just as im well aware of the costs involved in running a business, im also well aware of how much money a seasoned refrigeration mechanic can make for an employer. My apologies if I seem a little annoyed by your response, but im not some green mechanic as your post would imply.

Time to have a beer I think. Have a nice weekend gents

regards

AUcooler

[Tesla]

Hi AUcooler
I understand where your coming from (I hope) and I think all Magoo is trying to say is that we get a few extras on the job which usually make up for the downfall. Also maybe a few things have changed with the times - I just signed up on a new deal where I get the first thee hours at time and a half then the rest at double for a minimum call out with 150 a week for the inconvenience unless on the weekend. Perhaps it's time for you to go for a decent pay rise to compensate the increased cost of living? Each for their own and different areas deserve different compensation for remuneration. I live near a city and know that most call outs just require resetting a switch then monitoring for a short time - when the real repair happens the next working day. Your case may be a little different and require more on average. As for the minimum 2 hours which you say is what it has changed to - THAT JUST AINT FAIR! I couldn't imagine getting out of bed or leaving a family meal for that, no matter how fast the job was. I am pretty sure most on this forum would agree with me on this that two hours minimum is not acceptable. Stick to your guns on the minimum 4 hours, not just for us but for our sons too. You could name and shame your boss/company on a separate thread if things are not sorted then we would know who not to work for.

[paul_h]

This is not completly correct. In 2009 the Australian government merged many of the previous awards in order to clarify some minimum wages and working standards. They called this the "National Employment Standard" or NES. This comprises of a two page document that an employer is legally bound to give to any new employee or risk procecution. Anyway the NES is linked to a "Modern Award" and in our case(Refrigeration and Air Mechanics) this is MA000025 which is linked above. Overtime rates are outlined in section 26. The trap though is that when you are "on call" and carry out a service call, are you on "standby" or on "overtime". I believe we would be on overtime as we have already surpassed our minimum 38hr week.

No problems.
Last time an employer paid me was in 2007, and I was going by memory and have no idea about current awards, self employed since 2008 here.
Can't see how a company would pay you 4hrs if they can only charge 2hrs though. Surely they would have their policy to retain customers and get after hours work, and your contract would reflect that? And they wouldn't even offer the service at a loss to themselves if your pay was higher than they could charge. IE they charge customers min 2hrs to get and keep customers as their business needs them, so that's all they can offer you, take it or leave it.
In fact I'm pretty sure that where I worked was only 3 hrs min labour charged, and three hours pay to me, but that was 2007.

[AUcooler]

Hi Tesla

Firstly thanks for posting your "on call deal", thats all I was after from this topic to see what is generally going on in the industry in OZ. The hourly rate im on already isnt too bad for a country employer. Its just the call out rate that got under my skin following last Christmas Day when the phone rang at 11am and I recieved a call out to a nursing home with a broken coolroom. My children just stare dumb founded that I was leaving to go to work on Christmas day "again", and my wife just said "you may as well just go back to working for yourself" and one of my Christmas guests enquired what I would get payed for working Christmas Day, and he was quite amused and rolled his eyes when I said "about a $100 after tax". I went and fixed the coolroom, so the grannies and grandpa's meals didnt go off, and the client was quite pleasant and pleased that I could come. I was quite friendly to the client as usual, as I know its not their fault.
I think there is a problem with the way "on call" plays out in this trade for mechanic. Particularly for those in the commercial refrigeration industry who leave for work at any time of the day or night. Take a look at this coming coming Easter Break which Techs are avoiding like the plague. The poor fellow that is landed with on call duties is on standby for a 5 day holiday, and so is his family, as they cant go camping, fishing trips are out, and generally most activities that would cause the mechanic to miss a 2hr KPI response time to the likes of Woolworths or Coles. All for what, a $100 hehe

anyway ive had my winge, thanks for listening.

@Magoo, my apologies again for what appears to be an aggressive response yesterday. I had just spent 7hrs working on two old Viking Icemakers that were located on top of a large freezer room under a tin roof. The temperatures under that tin never fell fell below 35*c and often punched out into the 40's through the day. I walked past the smaller freezer rooms condensing unit at one point, and note that it was running at around -7degC and cycling on HP. Perhaps my HP tripped as well Perhaps I was a little on edge when I got home.

regards

AUcooler

[AUcooler]

Can't see how a company would pay you 4hrs if they can only charge 2hrs though. Surely they would have their policy to retain customers and get after hours work, and your contract would reflect that? And they wouldn't even offer the service at a loss to themselves if your pay was higher than they could charge. IE they charge customers min 2hrs to get and keep customers as their business needs them, so that's all they can offer you, take it or leave it.

The company charges the client a $300 callout out fee which offers the client 2hrs labour before there is an extra charge involve. One hour of that 2hrs generally involves the tradesmans travel to and from the job. So the clients gets one hour for $300. The tradesmen recieves $100(varies with his hrly rate) and the employer drops $200 in his pocket less costs, while he is sitting by the pool at home. 2hr call outs are a poor deal for both the client and the tradesmen. The tradesmen weekend is ruined for what equates to 4hrs ordinary time, and would have to recieve two call outs in order to accumulate 8hrs at ordinary time.

Under a 4hr call out system outlined in the awards since the 70's at least the client recieves 4hrs labour if required for the callout charge and the tradesmen recieves fair recompense for his efforts. Its a much better deal for both client and tradesmen. Also good client PR for the employer with the outcome being more work coming out of the call outs.

I think part of the problem is that many small employers, although they be of a high standard of tradesmen, are often poor businessmen when it comes to managing there credits and debits. I fail to see how a small business charging out labour on average at around $90hr and paying tradesmen depending on skill level an average from $22/hr to $28/hr can cry poor when it comes to after hours service. Sadly some employers could do with a maths tutor at times. Turning a profit each year in this industry is not that hard as long as you have reasonbly compentant tradesmen on your team.

[Bones]

we to are currently in talks with our employer... *cough* *cough* i mean stalemate... on this matter. we are also under that new modern award.

we get $50 a day for on call sat/sun or public holiday (long weekend) before tax; any call outs we get paid for time on site sat x1.5 and sun & Holiday x2 rate which is blatant rip off since our emplyer is charging top rates for this service (coles, woolies, clubs, pubs, hospitals etc) and calling us thieves for wanting anything more then this... how could we!!

all we are asking for atm is whats in the award, my wife goes ballistic when she knows i'm on call because as your all aware your pretty much can be glued to your phone on a bad weekend or coles/woolies air con or fridge dies you got to be there... clubs beer stops you got to be there... keep the company ticking with a smile while the boss enjoys his time off camping or whatever he does.

our biggest problem is the numbers we have left at the company now mostly because of this issue, if everyone able did a weekend it would make matters better (along with a min 4hr call out time lol). when i started there i was on call once every 6 weeks, now its down to every 2 weeks from others bailing ship which i'm seriously thinking about myself atm.

my wife keeps saying to me to just work for yourself, at least i know you'd be getting good money for all this rubbish lol

[paul_h]

my wife keeps saying to me to just work for yourself, at least i know you'd be getting good money for all this rubbish lol

Tell her shes wrong.
I make less self employed than I did as an employee, plus have to answer the phone 7am-7pm with general queries and not get paid for it. Not to mention all the 'free quotes' if quoting on install jobs (don't do much of them and I do charge for repair quotes). Plus people just not paying me, plus all the hours spent writing up quotes, answering emails and voice messages after hours.
I'm not on call 24/7 ever though as I just do mainly domestic a/c, some refrig but places not open after hours, there's some refrig business I look after because I've come across them and they have paid their bills. They will call in the evening and sometme on the w/e but not often.
I avoid general supermarket, deli, cafe and restuarant work though. Not 100% by lifestyle choice though, they are the typical places that don't pay anyway!

Just like big business, if you want to make money you have to have employees. If you want to work for yourself as a sole trader, it's more for the freedom and experience, not the money.

[Magoo]

Hi Au,
no offense taken, I know where you are coming from. All we all wont is a fare suck of the prawn.
By the the way I have been doing this stuff for 40+ years so fully understand, my family grew up with me being either overseas or at work. Being on call 24/7 is no life style.

[Bones]

Hey Paul, I know what your saying about quotes and payments etc etc..

It would more so be lifestyle change as at the moment to spend more time with family as at moment it feels like im working 24/7 and not getting properly renumerated enough for the time i and others boys are putting in.

[AUScooler:-)]

Read section 7 of the modern award very carefully and fully understand that the award is flexible and also the awart protects you from the toatal or gross weekly payments only.

Thats why i advise to stay well clear of this award.

[mikeref]

The days of on call allowance and call-out rates are a distant memory for me. So are 4 weeks paid holidays and accumulative sick leave per year. I recall being called out several times on a certain weekend years ago that reflected badly in the pay check. The tax increase seemed to out-weigh the extra dollars earned. I don't see a solution to on call and callout rates as one way or the other, the tax will catch up with you. AUcooler, to use your example of the coldroom job on Christmas day, would you have felt better going to work that day (for your chosen $ amount) or to be free of work over that period and spent the time with family and earning zero $? Having run your own business, you know it can't work both ways. Spare a thought for the staff there who had to work Christmas as well. MY POINT is, you have to make a choice, will it be money or lifestyle? .. Mike.

[Tesla]

Dudes we need to keep in prospective to the original question and where it is coming from (employee). I have been a contractor, sub contractor and an employee. The way I see it is we need to take into consideration the whole package and not let some/few bully employers (especially small time) take advantage of us. If we do let our conditions go out the door that our grandfathers fort for where will we end up?. Some of these employers try to screw us at every corner - that's business. Consider the costs of living today and how many years income it costs to buy an average house. I wonder how these bullies sleep straight in bed at night. Fair is fair and really any OT should be double time along with any call out should be 4 hours at double time. Just look at what has happened in the super market industry lately. Crap I remember the days of Sunday free trading - those were the days. At the end of the day if the bosses want to pay peanuts they can train monkeys and experienced workers can claim some of their tax money back in dole payments.

[AUScooler:-)]

http://www.fwa.gov.au/index.cfm?page...searchType=adv

[750 Valve]

Bones is in da house!!!!! Hi mate long time no see round this neck of the woods. What are you up to and are you still in Tamworth area?

As for the original post I would say 4 hrs at double time for each call done (plus a set fee to be "on call" and take the pager) is a good deal, this would be about the top deal going around. I have worked at a company that did 3hrs minimum at double time for the first call only, this was a bit weak but anywhere between the two is pretty much industry standard.

[AUScooler:-)]

Yea but christmas is not a standard call out, holiday should be 4 hours x 2.5

[lawrence1]

Well Guys,
I say if you don't like what you do and what they pay you just move on,,,,leave,, go somewhere else,no one is holding a gun at your head,,,get over it.Life goes on.
Lawrie

[AUScooler:-)]

Aucooler wants to know if he is being paid properly as per modern award and industry standard. We have given that advice.