4.1. ERMUSR 05-12-2009 - Laserfiche WebLink

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on-call responsibilities associated with the take-home vehicles qualify as "work-related activities during hours when the employee is not working." The ERMU take-home vehicle on-call practice and the responsibilities and requirements to be on-call are not written policies, but have been long practiced by the Utilities over the previous decades. These on-call practices and requirements need to be documented as policy. This brings forth the inevitable philosophical discussion on who is required to be on-call and who needs atake-home vehicle. Although being on-call and having atake-home vehicle do not technically go hand in hand, in all practical purposes they do. For a company to require an employee to be on-call, the company needs to provide the equipment for the employee to be able to respond. Specifically to this discussion, the employer needs to provide a vehicle for the on-call employee to be able to respond. This is an important part of providing the equipment and training needed for emergency preparedness. Without that company vehicle, the employer could be compromising customer service, response time, public safety, and the on-call employee's safety. Even within ERMU there are cases where an employee only has one personal vehicle at home. If that vehicle were not at home because it's being use by a spouse/dependent, the on-call response time would greatly be affected. Many times the scene of an accident that prompts the summoning of an on- call employee is already secured bylaw enforcement. When the scene is secured, an on-call employee would not be able to gain access in a personal vehicle to assess and make decisions/communications in order to facilitate safe/quick restoration of service. If the on-call employee is the first to the scene but arrives in a personal vehicle, the employee would not be able to safely secure the scene and protect the public because the personal vehicle lacks the required equipment. The company vehicles are equipped with radios for communication, personal protection equipment, flashing and/or visual safety indicators, equipment, and supplies. It is neither practical nor good loss prevention practice to have employees equip their personal vehicles with these items while being on-call. If an on-call employee needed to report to the Utilities plant with a personal vehicle to get a company vehicle before responding to a scene, valuable time could be lost. Not being able to respond directly to a scene compromises customer service and safety. The bottom line is that for an employee to be required to be on-call, the employer needs to provide the employee with the equipment to respond. This includes a vehicle. If for the safety of the public the on-call employees need to be provided with atake-home vehicle, this then brings up the question of who should be required to be on-call. There are a number of different on-call situations within the Utilities. There are on-call electric and water employees that are paid a stipend and have use of a vehicle for aweek of on-call (engaged to wait). There are managers that are on call 24/7/365 who are not paid a stipend but have use of a take-home vehicle (i.e. waiting to engage on-call). And, there is also a security technician on- call 24/7/365 that is not paid a stipend but has the use of a take-home vehicle. Each of these on- call situations is part of a company commitment to excellent customer service and public safety. The general reasons for electric and water employees to be on-call are customer service and safety. As the mission statement says, the Utilities provides safe and reliable services. Part of providing safe reliable services is being able to respond to emergencies, outages, water main breaks, and other after hour situations. And again, by being able to respond directly to the scene in a take-home vehicle, the employee is able to use the radio to call for addition resources or assistance including police, firefighters, emergency responders, or other utilities. These calls would not be able to be made in the same expedited manner if the employee were not in a company vehicle equipped with the items needed to safely do their job or if the employee had to drive to the plant to pick up the company vehicle prior to responding. It is the Utilities' responsibility that on-call employees are available after hours and are equipped, including the