Legal Question in Employment Law in Florida

Compensation for being ''on call''

I work as a Detective for a county L.E. agency in Florida. We are placed on a ''on call'' status during our off hours should an incident arise that we need to respond to or to provide advice on how to handle a given incident via telephone. We are only paid when we actually respond to an incident. Is there a law that provides for compensation for being ''on call''? We are required to respond within a ''reasonable'' amount of time if called/paged. Obviously, when ''on call'' our freedom is greatly restricted as far as where we can go and what we can do. I heard that federal law required the employer to compensate the employee's under these circumstances from someone in law enforcement in Georgia. I work for a Sheriff and we have no union. Also, the detective assignment is voluntary, but being ''on call'' is not. Thank you.


Asked on 12/09/01, 2:12 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Frank Shooster Shooster Kahn & Kleinman, P.A.

Re: Compensation for being ''on call''

Several years ago the Supreme Court held in a case called Alden v. Maine that state employees werent entitled to the protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act as it pertains to overtime. If the County is not considered a state agency for purposes of that statute, it sounds like you and the other employees similarly situated have a case. The answer will require several hours of legal research. Depending on the number of you have have this problem, we would be willing to undertake the research at no charge. If interested please contact me.

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Answered on 12/12/01, 5:50 pm


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