On call

[rottlvr2]

Jurisdiction

Illinois

For three years of the four and a half years that I work for FedEx Trade Networks, I was put in charge of a program that required me to manage an on-call team 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year including holidays. I was required to manage it after working a normal shift. I would get calls all the time requiring need to make management decisions or talk to customers or sometimes having to go in in the middle of the night. I was never compensated for all of this extra time and in my opinion that is not correct. FedEx management told me because I was an exempt employee and I did not qualify for overtime.

So I guess I am wanting to know if there is anything I can do.

 

[cbg]

If you were correctly classified as exempt, and if you were managing a team of workers it would appear that you were, there are no circumstances whatsoever under which the law entitles you to overtime. That's what being an exempt employee means; you are exempt from overtime. An exempt employee is not paid on the basis of how many hours you work but on the value of the job to the employer.

If by "something you can do" you mean, use the law to force Fedex to pay you additional compensation, then no, there is nothing you can do since the law does not agree with you that you are owed any.

 

[txls]

The flip side is that when/if you have a slow week and work less hours you're not penalized. The only thing you can do is try to negotiate a raise in salary if you feel the current arrangement does not adequately compensate for the hours required.