Do you have clients that expect round-the-clock service? If you do, hopefully you are charging those customers a hefty amount in a comprehensive service agreement. But even more importantly, how are you paying your technicians who might be “on-call” 24/7?
While it is rare that a customer is going to expect immediate day-or-night response for a problem with their AV system, it is much more common when there is an intrusion, access control or video surveillance solution in the mix. Those systems are expected to be in working order 24/7, and it is often vital for affluent clients and commercial customers. And because so many more integrators today are providing security solutions as part of their offering, and commonly work with wealthy homeowners and commercial clientele, it is probably only a matter of time before they get a request to provide 24/7 service.
Most integrators are unwilling to ruin their technicians’ lives by putting them on-call 24 hours a day, so sadly the burden is often carried by the company owner. Fortunately, the advent of remote managed service from companies like OneVision Resources enable integrators to immediately “triage” problems and remotely access and troubleshoot systems without having to pay your staff. However, even with those services available, integrators can run into situations that require them to pay a staff person to be on call all night and on weekends. (The owner has to take vacation some time!)
That is where it gets tricky… how are you paying that “on-call” staff person?
“If these are salaried employees on managerial level, this arrangement is not a problem. However, for hourly employees it creates a serious issue, seriously expensive, for you,” says alarm industry legal expert Ken Kirschenbaum of the law firm Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum in Garden City, N.Y.
He notes that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes in federal law minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees. A recent federal court case [Lindow v Metropolitan Realty Group 19 civ 2021 USDC, EDNY] determined that employees are entitled to be paid round the clock for the time they are “on call,” not just for the time spent responding to customers and actually performing work.
So, in other words, if you ask your employee to “be available” for service calls, you have to pay them for that entire “availability time” even when they are not “clocked in” and performing work for their hourly compensation. If they have already worked a full 8-hour day or 40-hour work week (depending on state law), then that employee is also to be paid overtime compensation.
Can You Avoid Paying Round the Clock?
How you avoid having to pay a service technician round the clock? The key, according to Kirschenbaum, is for the integrator to not designate the employee as being “on call.” Instead, he believes an integrator should reach out to the employee to check on their after-hours availability should the need arise. If the employee is not available, then so be it. If the employee is available, then be ready with a generous hourly compensation rate for their actual working time.
The situation calls for the importance of integrators to have well-written employee contracts, such as those offered by Kirschenbaum, with every staff person. Using D-Tools System Integrator (SI) and D-Tools Cloud software, integrators can set in place the compensation parameters for employees "on-call" 24/7 and when they are responding to off-hours service calls. Having those outlay amounts in place will help integrators accurately determine the profitability of their service plans.
