Time “on call”




As explained above, an adult worker is entitled to a rest period of no fewer than 11 consecutive hours in each 24-hour period, or in appropriate cases, an equivalent period of compensatory rest which is not working time. 




One of the most problematic aspects of the Working Time Directive (WTD) for employers has been the treatment of time spent waiting to see whether you will be called to work, often called “on call” or “standby” time. Under the WTD, time spent “on call” is working time if the person on call is “working, at their employer’s disposal and carrying out their activities”. All working time spent on call must be included when calculating working hours and working out when rest breaks are required. 


Under EU law, someone will be working when on call (or on “standby”) if the employer has the right to dictate where the worker must be and can require that worker to respond to provide services immediately in case of need. That place might be the workplace. 


For example, doctors required to remain on hospital premises on call are working, even though they are free to decide what to do with that time, for example relaxing, sleeping, or watching TV (Sindicato de Medicos v Consumo de la Generalidad Valenciana [2000] IRLR 845). 


However, the place where workers must remain waiting for instructions from the employer need not necessarily be the workplace. In Ville v Matzak [2018] Case C-518/15, standby firefighters were working when they were required to remain at home and able to respond within eight minutes. Similarly, in Truslove v Scottish Ambulance Service [2014] UKEATS/0053/JW, a case supported by Unite, relief ambulance drivers and paramedics on call overnight away from their home base station, who had to stay within a three-mile radius of the ambulance station at all times and be able to respond to a call-out within three minutes, were working.


Someone who just needs to remain in contact with the employer in case they are needed, but who is free to decide on their own location, is not working. 


In the Matzak case, the ECJ rejected a test based on the “quality” of standby time, in other words, whether or not that time is “truly the workers’ own” to enjoy as they please. Instead what matters is where a worker is required to be and the speed of response expected. 


The European Commission has been consulting for some time on a new Working Time Directive on on call time and compensatory rest, but employer and worker organisations have been unable to agree and plans currently appear to be on hold. The Commission says it is conducting a detailed review and impact assessment. Brexit uncertainty makes it impossible to predict the impact, if any, of future changes on UK workers. 


The WTD only regulates time, not pay, which is a matter for national governments. Rest breaks and time spent “on call” or “standby” can be paid at a different rate from other time (or can be unpaid), as long as there is no breach of national laws. In the UK, a worker’s basic pay must meet the NMW hourly rate threshold, averaged across the relevant pay reference period, or else the employer will break the law (see page 91).