Can an employer mandate that you are reachable on a personal phone outside of working hours?
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Can an employer mandate that you are reachable on a personal phone outside of working hours?
I was hired as an hourly employee with set working hours M-F, 40 hours a week. If there is a sudden increase in work volume over the weekend in another department, we may be asked to assist but it is not required. Recently, my employer mandated that if asked to work we must respond within 2 hours of the request a yes is not required. The requests are made via automated calls and texts to our personal phones. If we do not respond within 2 hours we face being placed on corrective action. If we are unable to respond we are supposed to give our manager an explanation. Is this legal? I was not hired as an on-call employee and they are essentially requiring that I am reachable by a personal cell phone at all times or that I divulge private non-work related details to my manager if I am unable to respond. My concern is that there are plenty of reasons why I may not be reachable on my personal phone for 2 hours at a time on a weekend and I do not feel like I should have to account for my personal time when I am outside of work.
Asked on November 19, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, South Carolina
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
Yes, your employer can mandate that you be reachable on your personal cell phone after working hours. The fact is that a company can set the conditions of the workplace much as it sees fit. This is true as long as its actions does not violate the terms of an employment contract or union agreement. Additionally, it must not constitute some form of legally actionable discrimnination or retaliation. For your part, you can either comply with this policy, refuse but risk termination, or quit. Note, to the extent that this on-call time results in your perfroming compensable work, you must be paid for it and, tot he extent that it puts you over 40 hours in your work week, you're entitled to be paid overtime rates.
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