Duties must be paid
From time to time, our union receives stories from subscribers and other concerned people. The topic of unpaid duty is quite painful. It occurs not only in the IT sphere, but everywhere.
The shifts themselves are standard practice. There are services and processes that work without interruption. They require 24/7 service, that's understandable. However, a person is not able to work in this mode. He needs rest and peace.
Often, employers present on-call duty as a necessary evil. Uninterrupted service is a competitive advantage. It will allow you to increase the company’s revenue, get new customers and much more.
But these are all benefits for the business, but what about the employee? And the employee receives a “thank you very much”, lack of sleep and lack of time.
Even if overtime is paid, sometimes they wait for you at your workplace the next day. And this is additional stress.
So who benefits from being on duty? How long can you estimate an employee’s working day?
We can say that these processes are simply not set up properly. But note that if such a sweatshop brings results and does not cause dissatisfaction, no one optimizes it. This is where the stories come from, which differ only in details. But the essence is always the same:
Duty as a fact – you cannot refuse.
On duty as a duty – there will be no additional payment.
On duty is like a “streamlined work process” – there will be no days off, you have to adapt, everyone works like that here.
A number of managers are responsible for work processes, but in an emergency situation they will not be involved in the work. Because they have no means of solving such problems.
An employee will work. If the disaster occurred late at night, it will work late at night. During family dinner – will work instead of family dinner.
Service continuity is a headache for service owners. And the solution is a large staff of specialists with decent pay, as well as transparent business processes within the company itself. So that such duties are not “surprises”.
However, our reality is somewhat different from the solution described above. Employees can still independently establish a comfortable working environment by participating in negotiations with their superiors. But a disunited team is not capable of dictating its terms.
Colleagues, do not allow yourself to be ridden. Any work must be adequately paid. Unite and fight for your rights. We have already started working in this direction.
